Uganda's Supreme Court overturns anti-gay bill

Uganda's Supreme Court on Friday overturned the country's controversial Anti-Homosexuality Act.

The five judges of the court dismissed as null and void the parliamentary session during which the bill was endorsed for lacking the necessary quorum.

In March, several human rights campaigners filed a case before the Supreme Court challenging the law.

During the first hearing on Wednesday, human rights campaigner Nicholas Opio, one of the plaintiffs, raised a procedural question as to the quorum in Parliament on the 20th of December 2013 which was in contravention of the constitution.

He told court that on that day the prime minister drew the attention of the Parliament speaker about the lack of quorum, a point that was ignored by the speaker.

The Anti-Homosexuality law 2014 was passed by Parliament on December 20th and later signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni.

The legislation provides for a sentence of life imprisonment for anyone convicted of homosexuality among other tough sentences.

Ugandan MPs in passing the law argued that it was meant to protect the traditional family setting by prohibiting sexual relations by persons of the same sex.

The law is to be used to strengthen the nation's capacity to check emerging threats to traditional family values, they added.