Last week, BBC reporter Scott Mills said he felt threatened by Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill author, David Bahati. Mills interviewed Bahati in Uganda for the program, The World’s Worst Places to be Gay. After the interview, Mills says he revealed his gay orienation to Bahati and then according to Mills:
The 36-year-old was filming a show called The World’s Worst Place to be Gay? (on BBC3, of course), when he confessed his sexual orientation to British-educated politician David Bahati – who Scott said “went mental”.
He explained: “He was scary. He ordered us to cut the cameras then brought a security guard.
“We ran off and he rang one of our guys saying, ‘Where are they staying? What are the registration plates? I want them arrested. They won’t get far’.”
Fortunately Scott’s colleague lied about their location, and armed police arrived at the Sheraton – where they had been falsely told the team were staying.
The DJ continued: “I’d heard horror stories about people getting arrested and roughed up and who knows what. I was scared.”
I wrote David Bahati and asked for his version of the events and he sent back the following message:
…the most important thing to me at the moment is to ensure that my president and party win elections on 18th feb but not to engage in immaterial issues of a journalist trying to make ends meet.
In this interview (click the link), Bahati says he would not have done the interview for the documentary if he knew Mills was gay.
On one other occasion, MP Bahati scared a gay BBC journalist who was filming a documentary. While I cannot reveal the identity of the journalist, I have independent confirmation of the fact that Bahati considered police intervention when a reporter revealed his sexual orientation.
Here is a brief clip of Mills with Solomon Male.
And then his witchdoctor treatment:
As Bahati noted, Ugandan elections are this coming Friday. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill is one of many bills slated to be considered after the elections.