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Tanzania launches crackdown on LGBT activists


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Tanzania has launched yet another crackdown on LGBT advocates in the country, threatening to arrest and expel them from the country.

The Home Affairs Minister, Mwigulu Nchemba, announced that domestic and foreign campaigners for gay rights would face criminal repercussions.

 

In a statement he gave at a fundraising ceremony in the capital, Dodoma, the minister said that those who want to campaign for LGBT rights should leave Tanzania.

 

“Those who want to campaign for gay rights should find another country that allows those things,” Nchemba said.

 

He went on to stress that the country would be pursuing legal action.

 

“If we establish that any organisation registered in our country is campaigning for gay rights, I will deregister that organisation.

 

“If a Tanzanian national is doing that campaign, we will arrest him and take him to court and if it is a foreigner, we will immediately order him to leave the country.”

He added that if LGBT rights campaigners were using the guise of human rights then they too would have to face the authorities.

 

“I would like to use this opportunity to remind and warn all organisations and institutions that campaign and pretend to protect homosexual interests, that we are going to arrest whoever is involved and charge them in courts of law.”

 

“If we find a foreigner conducting this campaign, he or she will be deported within no time.

“They will not have even the time to unplug their mobile phones from the socket,” he warned.

 

Homosexual activity is illegal in the country and punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

The crackdown comes after Tanzanian President John Magufuli condemned homosexuals and pregnant teenage girls in the country.

 

The president has been criticised for kerbing political activity – something which people deem “increasingly authoritarian”.

Tanzania recently threatened to publish a list of gay people who are allegedly selling sex online.

 

Health Minister Hamisi Kigwangalla announced the plan as part of the same government crack down on “the homosexuality syndicate”.

“I will publish a list of gay people selling their bodies online,” Kigwangalla wrote on Twitter. “Those who think this campaign is a joke are wrong. The government has long arms and it will arrest all those involved quietly.”

 

They have since backed down on the threats and insisted that they would “deal with this issue differently”.

Kigwangalla confirmed on Twitter: “For strategic reasons and to avoid destroying evidence we will deal with this issue differently and will keep you informed at every step.”

He also said that releasing the names would be akin to “freeing a devil in a bottle.”

 

Earlier this year the country stopped 40 privately run clinics from providing HIV-related services because they “cater to homosexuals”.

 

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*Smh* I can't understand such levels of intolerance even to the extent of stopping access to medical services. #nocomment

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Tanzania seems to have this unspoken zeal to attain the post of 'most homophoboc country in the world'

 

Though homosexuality has long been illegal in Tanzania, this past year, their government has aggressively and publicly targeted LGBT rights. Unashamedly and very local in approach too. Kai. They ve gone as far as setting up community members with the police and other law enforcers; Tanzanian police could resort to sex with an 'offender' if extortion fails.

 

Truth is since 1945, though the criminal code passed by Britain when Tanzania was under its administration, prescribes between 30 years to life in jail for gay male sex, but Lesbian sex isn’t against the law!, their former president Jakaya Kikwete, who was in office from 2005 to 2015, mainly left LGBT people alone. But since his successor John Magufuli was elected, that tolerance is disappeared.

 

New president Magufuli poses himself as religious and very traditional and mostly believes that sex work and homosexuality are Western-adopted behaviors that can easily be eradicated, thus declaring war on Lgbt communities.

 

This obvious backlash that became evident around March 2016, is seemingly geared towards cracking down on freedom of expression and association in Tanzania, civil society, human rights associations and even journalists majorly being targeted

 

 

That guy Ummy Mwalimu, Tanzanian health minister and his equally exuberant deputy minister Hamisi Kigwangalla are unrepentant foot soldiers of the anti-gay government of 'Tanzanian day' and has been known to openly taunt gays and lesbians on both social media and local media.. They have curbed every health programme that may benefit the LGBT community and other sexual minorities. Very petty in their approaches; BANNING LUBE SO GAY AND LESBIANS WONT HAVE SEX. This is just one, amongst many.

 

 

Congtatulations Tanzania you have certainly taken over from Nigeria and Uganda as the most homophobic Africa, what an aim?

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When government is doing bad, they distract the population with attack on gay people. Works all over the world. We need to find a way to mobilize and counter this old but effective tactic!

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