The Dizzying Tale of Uganda’s Latest ‘Ex-Gay’ Campaigner

By Khatondi Soita Wepukhulu / openDemocracy

Elisha Mukisa’s Facebook page is typical of Uganda’s so-called ‘ex-gay’ campaigners.

There are fervent denouncements of Ugandan LGBTIQ organisations. There are lists purporting to ‘out’ homosexuals and their allies. There is praise for the Ugandan politicians behind the passing of the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) – many of whom Mukisa claims to have worked with.

Less typical is a two-month pause in the posts, beginning in August. The gap is the only indicator of the period Mukisa spent in prison while awaiting trial for the offence of “homosexuality” – under the same law he worked to help pass.

Mukisa’s complex and often contradictory role in the passage of the anti-gay law stretches back years. But one event in particular helped lay the groundwork for the bill that has devastated queer communities in Uganda: a social media video from August 2022.

The video, viewed thousands of times on Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, saw Mukisa claim the LGBTIQ umbrella organisation Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) had “recruited” him into homosexuality as a minor and infected him with ”long-term illnesses”.

He also alleged that the organisation was shooting gay pornography and “luring” children into homosexuality for money.

Mukisa’s video was instrumental in whipping up anti-gay hysteria and establishing the narrative that queer organisations were “recruiting” children into homosexuality. It was posted by anti-rights groups including Life and Family Network, an umbrella organisation of anti-LGBTIQ and anti-abortion groups in Uganda, and in the following months Mukisa was platformed on the social media channels of Ugandan Christian groups.

Beginning in June 2022, Mukisa doubled down on attacking the country’s queer institutions. He filed complaints to the police, government ministries and the country’s charity regulator accusing various LGBTIQ organisations, including SMUG, of sex trafficking of minors and “recruitment” into homosexuality.

As a result, Uganda’s charity regulator the NGO Bureau suspended SMUG’s operations and published a report listing other 22 LGBTIQ-linked organisations as under investigation for “suspected… involve[ment] in the promotion of LGBT activities in the country”.

“Even MPs who were allies would reach me and say this is about protecting the children,” SMUG’s director Frank Mugisha told openDemocracy. He believes Mukisa’s media appearances and meetings with politicians tipped the scales in favour of the law.

Mukisa’s tune changed, however, when he found himself behind bars in August 2023.

During three visits by openDemocracy, he made claims that were at odds with his position in the past. They were at odds, too, with the extent of the role he had clearly played in paving the way for the Anti-Homosexuality Act, by pushing anti-LGBTIQ conspiracy theories that distorted national understanding of queer sexuality and drummed up hate against queer people. He expressed deep frustration over his “betrayal” by government officials he’d worked with, believing that his arrest was “a political move”.

In a note he wrote in prison and shared with openDemocracy, Mukisa claimed that he was “used as a fighting tool in the campaign against homosexuality and after they got what they wanted, they dumped me”.

He added: “My prosecution is a political move by these people to silence me, if not do away with me. Having worked with these fellows, they choose to imprison me behind a political move.”

Speaking to us while in prison, he added: “The ex-gay campaign was a political move.

“I am happy to be queer, [to] be who I am.”

Mukisa alleged that he was sought out by leading anti-gay rights campaigners in Uganda. They included pastors Solomon Male and Martin Ssempa, who were both involved in the first proposed anti-gay law in 2014; Stephen Langa, head of Family Life Network, a local anti-queer rights group; and MP Sarah Opendi, chair of the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association.

Mukisa also claims he was, through Opendi, connected with powerful politicians interested in seeing the bill passed, including Anita Among, speaker of the Parliament, MP Charles Onen, the original sponsor of the most recent anti-gay bill, and MP Lucy Akello, who, in an openDemocracy report this year, was revealed as one of the legislators in a WhatsApp ground convening various anti-rights agitators in Uganda. Mukisa claimed Opendi, Akello and Onen had facilitated his viral video, paying for the hotel and arranging a cameraman. He also claims that they wrote the script for him.

Mukisa claimed that the officials “wanted to use us for money from the government and from American evangelicals”.

“I [provided] evidence needed about recruitment of children into homosexuality,” said Mukisa.

Mukisa claimed that the accusations he’d made against SMUG in 2022 were “not true”, but declined to elaborate. He said he was desperate to reconcile with the LGBTIQ community, though couldn’t understand why none of them had visited him. “Aren’t they open to dialogue? They are too intolerant,” he said.

Mukisa also vowed to fight the AHA once released.

“When I come out, I will be one of the people who will lead the de-campaigning of the anti-gay law. I’ll expose everyone who used me and all the money they sent me,” he had said. “I wish I hadn’t participated in the anti-gay campaign.”

Upon his release from prison, however, Mukisa’s song changed again.

He was unwilling to provide any evidence to support any of the claims he had made while on remand. In November 2023, he said he’d “quit” homosexuality “completely”. And, on Facebook, he restated his admiration for Opendi and Among, who he claims were behind the withdrawal of the charges against him.

Most damagingly, he has also resumed his attack on LGBTIQ rights and organisations, saying they “refused to support” his co-accused, 21-year-old Ramon Mwesigwa.

“I am not engaging with gay people any more,” he said. “I will work, sweat – but not allow myself to be subject to a group of people whose interests are evil.”

In prison, Mukisa claimed that for a million Ugandan shillings (about $260) from the queer organisations, he’d be “open to negotiations”. Mukisa’s fallout with the community in the past couple of years has included accusations of blackmail and solicitation against him.

Mukisa’s claims about the extent of his involvement with politicians have been met with denials and silence.

Opendi told us: “I have never shared a platform with him anywhere… MPs, religious and cultural leaders and Ugandans as a whole are against LGBTIQ activities. It cannot be Elisha who convinced MPs to pass the bill.”

Elisha gave them what they thought was tangible evidence. He was a witness

Onen said he “met [Mukisa] from Parliament,” adding that he believed him to be “a young man with a sound mind though traumatised by his past life as a gay”. He added: “I believe he is totally a changed person.”

Langa declined to comment on the claims raised by Mukisa. MP Akello, Ssempa and Male did not respond to openDemocracy’s request for comment.

There is no evidence that people’s sexuality can be changed, and the so-called ‘ex-gay’ movement globally has been linked to harmful and abusive practices towards queer people.

Meanwhile, last month, the state attorney attached to Buganda Road Chief Magistrate’s court in Kampala applied to have the homosexuality charges against Mukisa and his co-accused, 21-year-old Ramon Mwesigwa, withdrawn. No reason was given.

So what is the truth about Mukisa?

Bizarre history with queer community

It is impossible to understand Mukisa’s role in, and seemingly abuse by Uganda’s anti-LGBTIQ movement without looking further back.

In 2014, aged just 18, he was jailed for “defilement”, meaning the sexual abuse of a minor. His sentence lasted six years. Mukisa expected the queer community to support him financially, believing that LGBTIQ organisers had raised large amounts of money for his welfare while he was incarcerated. But Rihanna, a trans woman and queer organiser who spearheaded these fundraisers, told us the donations had been small, only able to cover provisions like soap and sugar.

Mukisa was unconvinced and felt he was being shortchanged. Rihanna denied this: “All the money raised for Elisha was accounted for.”

Rihanna visited Mukisa a number of times in prison. During one of these, in about 2019, Elisha allegedly told her he would “burn the community to the ground” when he left jail – something he denied when we asked him.

But between 2020 and 2022, Mukisa did just that.

First he began making financial demands to various queer organisations, including SMUG, which is one of the country’s most visible. In WhatsApp messages dated November 2020 seen by openDemocracy, Mukisa made pleas to SMUG staff members for help with rent and food.

In one message, he said: “I am struggling to catch up… seven years in prison for simply [being] who you are isn’t easy. I strongly doubt whether we have patient… members in the community like me.”

SMUG says some of these financial demands were fulfilled but grew beyond what the organisation could assist with. (Mukisa insists he “never received a single cent”.)

When Mukisa didn’t get the financial support he wanted, threats followed. Mukisa assured the organisations he would “expose” them to the authorities. Eventually, he started targeting queer organisations with vitriolic social media posts.

One morning in April 2022, Mukisa carried his mattress and laid it out in front of SMUG’s offices, refusing to leave until the organisation offered financial support. There was an altercation with two SMUG employees, after which Mukisa went to the police station to report that SMUG had forced him into gay pornography, infected him with HIV and ‘recruited’ him into homosexuality as a minor. He accused the two SMUG employees of assault, resulting in an ongoing legal case against them.

The ‘original ex-gay’

Mukisa’s transformation from a same-sex offender into an influential political figure walking the corridors of power and contributing to a landmark law was not entirely unprecedented.

Between the mid-2000s and the early 2010s, Georgina Oundo styled himself as the ‘original ex-gay’ in Uganda who claimed that homosexuals “recruited” children.

Oundo told openDemocracy that Ssempa had paid him to turn on the LGBTIQ community. Sporting a cropped haircut and a rainbow striped T-shirt, Oundo narrated his journey from life as a flamboyant Ugandan trans woman to being the first face of the country’s ‘ex-gay movement’.

In February 2009, Ssempa reportedly introduced Oundo to Uganda’s then ethics and integrity minister James Nsaba Buturo, one of the key drivers of the failed 2014 law. He also met Edward Ssekandi, then the speaker of parliament; and the sponsor of the 2014 law, MP David Bahati.

“Ssempa would tell me to tell them that I had been recruited into homosexuality and that [homosexuality] had spread too much,” Oundo said. He also claimed that pastors Langa and Male worked with him.

In late 2022 and early 2023, Mukisa appeared on a TV show with Male to share his own testimony as an “ex-gay”. Oundo watched the show and recognised the story immediately.

“There is no ex-gay movement because everything about it is built on lies,” said Oundo.

openDemocracy asked Ssempa and former legislators Buturo, Ssekandi and Bahati for comment on their involvement with Oundo. We did not receive a response.

Lost patience

Donald*, a trans queer organiser, believes the LGBTIQ community should have done more to support Mukisa before he became involved in the ‘ex-gay’ movement.

In 2014, when Mukisa was first arrested, Donald was enlisted to review Mukisa’s application for pro bono legal representation. It was determined, however, that Donald’s organisation – a legal aid group for marginalised people – would not represent Mukisa as he had been accused of sexual crimes against children.

Rihanna, meanwhile, finally lost patience with Mukisa after his string of attacks on SMUG and other queer organisations last year. She claims he wrote to the prison authorities, claiming her organisation supporting LGBTIQ prisoners was “recruiting” inmates into homosexuality. The authorities attempted to have the registration for Rihanna’s organisation revoked.

“That was the time that I really regretted ever knowing or meeting Elisha,” she said.

Whatever the reasons for his falling out with the queer community in Uganda, Mukisa appears to have been identified by legislators and religious anti-gay crusaders as crucial in their narrative and misinformation campaign to get the anti-homosexuality bill passed. Not only did he claim to be ex-gay and openly hostile to queer people; he also claimed to have insider information on the workings of LGBTIQ organisations.

“Elisha gave them what they thought was tangible evidence. He was a witness,” said Donald.

Rihanna believes Mukisa’s actions may be the outcome of his initial brush with prison, and the lack of care he received.

Donald believes more ‘ex-gays’ will likely emerge in the coming months and years as queer people become desperate through high rates of unemployment and disillusionment with the LGBTIQ organisations from which they expect support.

“They may not go back to the government like Mukisa did but they will find another way to make money,” he said.

The AHA is currently being challenged at Uganda’s constitutional court.

Additional reporting by Nnanda Kizito Seruwagi.

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