A gay couple who fled from Uganda's homophobic laws have married, but one of them could soon be deported
28 January 2013 | By Joe Morgan
Lawrence Kaala and Jimmy Sswerwadda, a Ugandan gay couple, say they have become the first to marry in Sweden.
Lawrence Kaala and Jimmy Sswerwadda, who claim to be the first ever Ugandan gay couple to legally marry, said their vows on Saturday (26 January).
The couple married on the two-year anniversary of the murder of David Kato, one of the African country’s most famous LGBT activists.
Sweden QX’s editor Jon Voss described it as a ‘historic event not only for the lucky two, but for the LGBT community and movement in Uganda’.
While Kaala and Sswerwadda knew each other in Uganda, it was not too long before Sswerwadda was forced to flee to a country far more welcoming of gay people in 2008. The couple soon lost contact.
As Uganda’s hatred of gay people grew, Kaala said he had to suffer beatings by government officials and in the workplace.
Once his family turned their backs on him, he too was forced to flee.
Kaala traveled to Sweden, settled, and one day signed up for a magazine subscription to Come Out.
The first issue to arrive had a man on the cover who he had ‘never stopped loving’, Sswerwadda.
At a gay activist meeting in Stockholm, the African couple met again in a stairwell. They kissed and say they have never looked back.
But the Sweden Migration Board (SMB) has given the worst possible wedding gift to the couple, forcing Kaala to return to Uganda.
The deportation order has been issued, and friends of the couple are now working to get the SMB to see Kaala is in need of asylum.
Voss said: ‘They understand how symbolically important marriage is and how it makes it even more difficult for Lawrence Kaala to return to Uganda.
‘In an ideal scenario, the bureaucrats at the Migration Board and lawyers in the Immigration Courts come to their senses.’
On 4 February, Uganda’s parliament returns and the Anti-Homosexuality Bill will be top of the agenda.
Kenya criminalises homosexuality but allows for straight polyandry and polygamy
Community policing officer Adhalah Abdulrahman persuaded the two men to marry the woman after he saw them fighting over her in Mombasa county
Sylvester Mwendwa, one of the husbands, said he decided to share her with Elijah Kimani.
The unnamed woman had been having affairs with both men for more than four years and apparently refused to choose between them.
Lawyers said the marriage would only be recognised if they could prove polyandry – a woman having more than one husband – was part of their custom.
Mr Mwendwa told the BBC he loved the woman and that the contract was intended to “set boundaries” and “keep the peace”.
“She is like the central referee. She can say whether she wants me or my colleague,” he said.
Kenyan family lawyer Judy Thongori told the Daily Nation newspaper that the law does not explicitly forbid polyandry.
“The laws we have do not talk about it but for such a union to be recognised in Kenya, it has to be either under the statutory law or as customary marriage. The question we should ask now is whether these people come from communities that have been practising polyandry,” she is quoted as saying.
Consensual sexual activity between men is illegal under Kenyan law and carries a maximum penalty of 14 years’ imprisonment.
Polygamy refers to the practice of having more than one spouse – it is legal in Kenya although in recent years attempts have been made to remove it from the statue book.
Polyandry refers to one woman with multiple husbands.
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