Gay British man deported from Uganda urges government to help his partner
Bernard Randall says ministers need to do much more for Albert
Cheptoyek, facing seven years' prison on indecency charges
Mark Townsend, home affairs editor
The Observer, Saturday 1 March 2014 11.55 EST

Bernard Randall at the home in Kent he hopes to share with his partner
Albert Cheptoyek, who is facing trial in Uganda. Photograph: Antonio
Olmos for the Observer
Bernard Randall, the British man deported from Uganda after being
found with a gay-sex video, has condemned Britain's failure to take
decisive action against the east African country's increasingly
homophobic government.
The 65-year-old, who is battling to get his partner, Albert Cheptoyek,
out of the country, where he faces up to seven years in jail on
indecency charges, said that other countries had sent strong messages
to Uganda over its persecution of gay people, but Britain needed to be
"much more aggressive".
Randall, from Conyer in Kent, was charged with "trafficking obscene
material" last year after robbers stole a laptop containing images of
him having sex with a man in Morocco. The images were subsequently
published by the Ugandan tabloid newspaper Red Pepper and the couple
were arrested, though charges against Randall were dropped on
condition that he was deported to the UK.
Fears over Cheptoyek's safety have intensified after Uganda's
president, Yoweri Museveni, last week signed into law a bill that
imposes life sentences for acts of "aggravated homosexuality". The
bill
strengthens already strict legislation
outlawing homosexual acts in the country and criminalises the
"promotion of homosexuality".
Museveni's decision provoked international condemnation. The US
secretary of state, John Kerry, condemned the law as "atrocious",
while South African Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu compared it to
antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany or persecution in apartheid South
Africa. Donors such as Denmark and Norway have announced that they
will redirect aid away from the Ugandan government to aid agencies. On
Friday the World Bank said that it had postponed a £54m loan to Uganda
because of its anti-gay law.
Randall said the reaction of the UK government was mealy-mouthed by
comparison. Speaking from the home he hopes one day to share with
Cheptoyek, he said: "We need a much more aggressive line. Look at what
Norway, Denmark and Holland have done. Even the noises the Americans
have made."
He points to an email from the British high commission in Kampala that
arrived last week in response to Randall's growing concern for
Cheptoyek's safety. The statement reads: "The UK, along with our
international partners, will continue to press the government of
Uganda to defend human rights for all, without discrimination on any
grounds. The UK is in close contact with Ugandan civil society groups
and will continue to support their efforts to improve human rights in
Uganda."
It adds that the minister for Africa, Mark Simmonds, has raised the
issue of the bill several times with the Ugandan government, but
Randall believes that UK officials should also directly raise the case
of Cheptoyek.
"Albert is so worried for his safety. There is a lot of very
frightened people at the moment. He is very, very worried and living
under a lot of pressure," said Randall, a retired banking computer
analyst. "It would be great to have the Foreign Office on the case
with the Ugandan authorities, saying that we are watching it."
Randall revealed that attempts to whisk Cheptoyek, 30, out of the
country have been discussed, but he could not go into details.
Cheptoyek is in Entebbe, in central Uganda on the shores of Lake
Victoria. He lives in a gated compound with a security guard, and is
nursing an injured back and arm after his car was struck last Sunday
by a drunk driver, leaving him in need of hospital treatment.
Despite Museveni's bill and attempts to whip up homophobia by
newspapers such as
Red Pepper, Randall said that Cheptoyek had received considerable
support within Uganda: "People were very friendly. We received an
awful lot of support from the local community after the case was
opened against him. The locals had an 'it's your life' sort of
attitude'."
Last week Red Pepper had a front-page article naming the top 200
homosexuals in Uganda, with Randall among those identified despite him
no longer living in the country. The paper has been obsessed with the
relationship of Randall and Cheptoyek with lurid headlines such as
"Top city tycoons sodomy sex video leak" detailing the initial arrest
of the pair last October.
Shortly after the men's arrest, two Red Pepper reporters came to the
police station where they were being held and, Randall alleges,
Cheptoyek was photographed on the floor after having his legs kicked
away and being hit around the head by police.
One image of Randall's anti-cholesterol medication appeared in the
tabloid with the description: "Some of the drugs that the sodomisers
depend on."
Randall also detailed some of the ways in which he and Cheptoyek were
humiliated after their arrest. "A police surgeon looked closely at our
private parts and stuck a finger up our bums without any screens and a
CID officer watching. They seemed to think that a digital rectal
examination would tell them whether you've been sodomised or not," he
said.
Randall met Cheptoyek in Entebbe on 5 January last year while on
holiday with a friend from Conyer who introduced him.
"The attraction was instant – it was love at first sight," said
Randall, whose wife died in 2011 after a long battle with ovarian
cancer. I knew that I was gay as a teenager, but 50 years ago it was a
completely different world. Gays were portrayed in a very negative
way, whereas now there is much more much positive coverage."
The UK government has said that it ended all budget support payments
to Uganda last year and has reiterated that the concerns caused by the
anti-homosexuality bill would most probably deem the country
ineligible to receive aid.
A spokesman for the Department for International Development said:
"The UK is strongly opposed to discrimination, and we are deeply
disappointed that Uganda's bill has been signed. A country will never
truly escape poverty unless it upholds human rights and creates an
equal society."
HOW THE CASE UNFOLDED
5 January 2013 Bernard Randall meets Albert Cheptoyek while on holiday
in Uganda. There is an immediate attraction and they become lovers.
5 April 2013 Randall returns to Uganda for a month and rents a house
in Entebbe for himself and Albert.
18 September 2013 Randall returns to Uganda and his laptop is stolen.
Video of Randall having sex with a friend is taken from the computer
and passed to the Red Pepper tabloid.
19 October 2013 Red Pepper publishes stills from the video and police
arrest Randall and Cheptoyek.
22 October 2013 Both men are charged with "unnatural acts".
23 December 2013 Prosecutors say that the case against the two should go ahead.
22 January 2014 Charges against Randall are dropped and an order is
granted for him to be deported.
19 March 2014 Hearing scheduled in the case against Cheptoyek.
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