KAMPALA, Uganda – The man who killed leading gay rights activist David Kato has been convicted by a court in Uganda and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Ugandan Sidney Nsubunga Enoch told the court that he had no option but to beat Kato to death with a hammer because the gay activist had propositioned him, the BBC reported.
Nsubuga, 22, pleaded guilty to the murder of the gay rights activist Jan. 26, 2011 at his home in the Mukono district of Uganda.
Pink News reported that police arrested Nsubuga Feb. 2, and said he had been staying at Kato’s house after he had bailed Nsubuga out of prison.
A police spokesman had told Reuters, “He has confessed to the murder. It wasn’t a robbery and it wasn’t because Kato was an activist. It was a personal disagreement but I can’t say more than that.”
The conviction came on the day Ugandan rights activist Frank Mugisha received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for his work in the African country where he and David Kato worked.
Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda, like in many African countries, and the case sparked an international outcry and demands by world leaders and donor groups that the government decriminalize the practice.
