Uganda government committee rejects Anti-Homosexuality Bill

This article was just posted on Uganda’s Daily Montor website

A committee of Cabinet has made recommendations that could end Ndorwa West MP David Bahati’s proposal to have a separate law punishing homosexuality in Uganda. The recommendations, which Saturday Monitor has seen, come close to dismissing Mr Bahati’s draft legislation. The committee, put together to advise the government after Mr Bahati’s draft legislation left Uganda condemned by sections of the international community, looked deep into the language, tone and relevance of the draft legislation, dissecting every clause to determine its usefulness.

It was not clear who wrote the draft legislation, the committee’s report says, noting that the document had “technical defects in form and content”. The result left the draft legislation almost bare, as nearly all of the clauses were found either redundant, repetitive of existing laws, or even useless. In fact, the committee found that only “Clause 13” of the draft legislation, about the promotion of homosexuality, had some merit. 

“This appears to be the core of the (draft legislation) and should be upheld due to the fact that there was massive recruitment to entice people into homosexuality going on, especially among the youth,” the report says. Seven ministers were originally named to the committee, but only three, as well as a representative of the Attorney General, attended the meeting that produced these recommendations. 

Dr Nsaba Buturo, the junior ethics minister, who has spoken fiercely against homosexuality, never attended this meeting. He has since complained to Local Government Minister Adolf Mwesigye, who chaired the committee, that the report did not reflect his views. 

Read the rest at the Monitor site.

Divisions among government leaders seem obvious with these developments. In addition to the harshness of the bill, critics have noted that there are many aspects that are unenforceable and overlap with existing law. The clause suggested for retention, clause 13, reads:

13. Promotion of homosexuality.

(1) A person who –

(a) participates in production. procuring, marketing, broadcasting, disseminating, publishing pornographic materials for purposes of promoting homosexuality;

(b) funds or sponsors homosexuality or other related activities;

(c) offers premises and other related fixed or movable assets for purposes of homosexuality or promoting homosexuality;

(d) uses electronic devices which include internet, films, mobile phones for purposes of homosexuality or promoting homosexuality and;

(e) who acts as an accomplice or attempts to promote or in any way abets homosexuality and related practices; commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a line of live thousand currency points or imprisonment of a minimum of five years and a maximum of seven years or both fine and imprisonment.

(2) Where the offender is a corporate body or a business or an association or a non-governmental organization, on conviction its certificate of registration shall be cancelled and the director or proprietor or promoter shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for seven years.

As written, there are significant free speech issues here. However, we do not know to what degree even this clause was altered.

Probably, the most significant aspect of the article is the following:

Needs review

“The Anti-Homosexuality Bill should be reviewed since some provisions of the Constitution were not followed in the process of drafting and that, therefore, it was illegally before Parliament,” the report says, adding that “some sections of the Penal Code Act could be amended to include some good provisions” of the draft law. This kind of amendment, the committee’s report says, is the preferable option.

It was hoped, at least according to Dr Buturo, that the Cabinet committee would make certain amendments to the draft law. As it turned out, the committee critiqued Mr Bahati’s work so deeply that no amendments were proposed. Mr Mwesigye said on Thursday that he had no comment to make. Cabinet is yet to discuss the committee’s recommendations.

Mr Bahati was not immediately available for comment. The draft law is currently before Parliament’s Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. Kajara MP Stephen Tashobya, who chairs the committee, has not said when he is likely to start discussion on it.

It may be that the committee’s statement that the bill was “illegally before Parliament” will be a way for the government to declare the bill moot.

23 thoughts on “Uganda government committee rejects Anti-Homosexuality Bill”

  1. Icearc,

    The methodology employed by the Pew Research Centre is quite straight forward. Pew Researchers simply asked Ugandans what they thought about gayism and recorded their findings. On the other hand, the researchers that published their work in Lancet would have found it extremely difficult to gather reliable data on MSMs in African countries which lack the capacity or the political will to engage in proper record keeping of anything. As I explained earlier, homosexuality is invisible in Africa, so one wonders how these Lancet researchers were able to reach their findings. One would imagine that a lot of their data were probably guesstimates similar to the dubious “500,000 Ugandan Gays” conjecture. Anyway, fact remains that most Africans have taken a stand against the propagation of homosexuality. Even in most francophone african countries such as Gabon, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast where homosexuality is not criminalized, gayism is equally reviled and any attempt to do pro-gay advocacy is checkmated by the locals. Attempts to impose it by external forces (i.e. Western governments and gay lobbies) through economic blackmail and cajoling will fail woefully.

  2. Maazi NCO,

    You are quick to validate the Pew poll but doubt the Adrian Smith et al‘s paper in the Lancet. Anyone who agrees with your point of view is right ab initio. Why not show the same skepticism to all studies conducted by foreigners in these parts? Be consistent in your application of skepticism. By the way the co-investigators of the research into MSM include Africans for your information. And peer review of validity and veracity of research is quite robust in papers published in these journals.

    You fail to get the gist of the research, no law will eliminate gays. Instead the anti-gay legislation leads those who are with gay-orientation into an exercise of camouflage, most times engaging in their sexual activities in private and exuding a straight persona in public life hence resulting in cross-transmission of infection from their secret gay networks to their spouses in heterosexual networks. And considering the uphill battle African health practitioners have against the epidemic, it doesn’t help more entry points for infection.

    Just for the record only few of the 48 Black African nations in the continent are actually fighting wars or suffering any conflict. But thanks anyway for helping to perpetuate the negative stereotypes of your Western pay masters

    Lets not bury our heads in the sand for the sake of empty pride. It is what it is.The status quo in Africa is pitiable whether we say it or someone says it for us! It’s either civil war, insurgencies or strong men imposing empty peace through draconian tactics or disenfranchisement of the populace to remain in power throughout Africa, apart from a couple of nations which are the exception. That said, there’re good things happening in Africa but the regrettable incidents more than drown them out in magnitude and distribution.

  3. Icearc,

    Just for the record only few of the 48 Black African nations in the continent are actually fighting wars or suffering any conflict. But thanks anyway for helping to perpetuate the negative stereotypes of your Western pay masters

  4. Icearc,

    Well, I am not a doctor. I am an electrical engineer and do know a lot about research work since I possess an MPhil (i.e. a type of masters degree earned via research work) from a well known British University. I have authored or co-authored scientific papers which were peer-reviewed and presented at international engineering conferences. And one thing I found out during my days as full time researcher is that certain shameless people are ready to manipulate data to make it fit a pre-determined viewpoint. I wonder how the Lancet researchers were able to obtain accurate data on MSMs in a continent where basic record keeping is a huge problem. Given the invisibility of homosexuality in most of Africa, forgive me if I express huge doubts about the reliability of methods used by these Lancet researchers to arrive at their conclusions. Moreover, the Euro-American Gay Lobby is very powerful so researchers behind the Lancet journal paper must be seen to be sympathetic to gayism if they are to continue in their career. Any attempt to suggest anything contrary to decriminalization and widespread acceptance of gayism will spell the end of these researchers’ professional lives. I was educated abroad and so I know first hand how powerful the homosexual juggernaut is. The HIV/AIDS issue is merely a smokescreen for pro-gay advocates to promote this dangerous vice. Contrary to those advocates and dubious pro-gay research, AIDS will soar with decriminalization not decrease.

    ICEARC, homosexuality will never be accepted in Uganda and Africa as a whole— live with it okay?. “The South African Situation” is an aberration and will never be replicated all over the continent. Economic blackmail by USA, Canada, Sweden, etc, will not change the strong views of the vast majority—Over 96% of Ugandans reject gayism according to a scientific poll conducted by the United States based Pew Research Centre. You are Ugandan and therefore are entitled to live in the nation. But you must stop haullcinating about a future gay-loving Uganda and come to terms with the wishes of the vast majority. If you can’t live with that, please move to where gayism is accepted and take the local gay practitioners with you. After all, Western nations are equipped with the facilities to tackle the strange diseases that follow gays all over the place. If you decide to relocate to the West, please remember to lobby the NHS of Britain and FDA of United States to accept gay demands that they get the “human right” to donate their diseased blood to hospital blood banks.

  5. Maazi NCO,

    You don’t have to lecture me on health by the way, I am a medical doctor by initial training and public health specialist by post grad training. I am acutely aware of the risks associated with the higher transmissions during anal sex of HIV for one. I am also aware that the anything that drives gays underground and away from health provision services paradoxically increases risk to the heterosexual networks. Men who have sex with men (MSM) may add an extra entry point of infection to the heterosexual networks by being bisexual. And many MSM who are inherently not bisexual do marry to hide their own sexual orientation and then act as a bridge between the sexual networks.(refer to Men who have sex with men and HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, by Adrian Smith et al in the Lancet) In otherwords they have to be encouraged by dedicated and comprehensive public health policy information, education and communication(I.E.Cs) to seek treatment and for everyone’s sake by the way. Ostracism and stigmatisation only potentiates the pandemic. Furthermore, by far the greater majority of infections occur in heterosexual encounters, for that alone we should ban heterosex by your reasoning!

    “………Moreover, rape is an offense in Uganda so I am not sure what you are on about………..”

    My point exactly! Rape is an offense due to a non-consenting party, so are bestiality, necrophilia etc. However no matter the prevalence of rape in society, the act of heterosexual intercourse can never be deemed illegal just because some misuse/ defile it. The distinction is made between rape and consensual sex. We have to be consistent in maxim/doctrine/philosophy.

    “……….We live in solidarity-based communal societies where the basic unit is the family/community rather than the individual. In such societies, a person belongs not only to his/her immediate nuclear family, but also to the community as a whole…………”

    I guess that’s why we there’s a rainbow of peace, unicorns, sugar, spice and everything nice, kisses and hugs all around in Africa.

    For the love of God, don’t delude yourself. This in a continent where people starve, are at war, commit genocide, dirt poor etc what solidarity or communal society are you going on about?

    “……………. If you love it so much, go and live in the West (If you are already in the West, then please stay put and please pull along your local allies inside Uganda)……………”

    Ndi ku ttaka. I am Ugandan and proud of my origin. it must irk you so, that a 100% Ugandan can have my views and we are many by the way. And by the way you keep banding about that “96%” where you get it from, God knows. As I said keep deluding yourself, delusions, hallucinations by reinforcement seem to become true to the one concerned. Believe your tripe as much as you want. I am going nowhere on your account!

  6. Icearc,

    Homosexuality is pure sexual depravity on the same level as other forms of sexual deviance namely—-necrophilia, paedophilia, bestiality, etc. There is simply no basis to compare it to the normal man–woman relations. People who engage in masturbation are not the health-risk that homosexuals are. Even in the pro-gay West, Gays are banned from donating their blood because of their high risk health status. Please do get it when I explain that NHS in the United Kingdom and FDA in the United States do not allow gays to bring their tainted blood near the blood bank of hospitals. It is completely illogical to compare homosexuality with masturbation. All your talk about rape, masturbation, etc, is a mere red herring and therefore is completely irrelevant to this discourse. Moreover, rape is an offense in Uganda so I am not sure what you are on about. We are Africans and we do not live in western-style highly individualistic “Mind-Your-Own-Business” societies. We live in solidarity-based communal societies where the basic unit is the family/community rather than the individual. In such societies, a person belongs not only to his/her immediate nuclear family, but also to the community as a whole. What that person does in private rubs off on his/her family and by extension, the community. So this libertarian talk of privacy to commit sexual depravity on grounds that it does not infringe on another person’s “rights” may be great in the Western context, but in the African context such talk is essentially meaningless. If you were raised by African parents, you will know what I am talking about. The same principle applies to other vices such as adultery, rape, etc. However the vice of gayism is more dangerous since it seeks—in the LONG TERM—to deform the structure of our society through the introduction of gay marriage and gay adoption. Gays may claim at this time that they simply want privacy, but we know from history that they will ultimately demand gay marriage and gay adoption and a right to prevent the rest of us from expressing our disgust for homosexuality. In conclusion, over 96% of Ugandans reject gayism. We do not want this sort of sexual depravity to be promoted in our country. If you love it so much, go and live in the West (If you are already in the West, then please stay put and please pull along your local allies inside Uganda).

  7. Maazi NCO,

    Make the distinction between anti-bill and pro-gay. I don’t claim to understand the gay orientation or promote it, but I do know the act of gay sex does not infringe on another’s rights. The argument you make is akin to suggesting because women are raped, girls defiled etc we should ban hetero-sex. That because of marital violence we should ban marriage. That’s the inconsistency with that train of thought. I for one, due to my faith consider it a sin(but aren’t we all sinners?), but so is masturbation and a host of others. We don’t see those gathering the attention of the “traditionalists/nationalists”.The state should stick to those activities that directly infringe on another’s rights. It’s very easy to blame everything wrong with the world today on everyone but ourselves. Because we heteros will not engage in gay sex, why not gang up on them? The issues that matter never seem to get mention, or elicit the ire of the moral high-ground up-pities. Therein lies the bigotry. The pro-bill lobby will come up with all kinds of nonensicals, one being that we need to protect our boys. What a load of nonsense! Our boys are already protected by the law on aggravated defilement, and I would be the first to condemn any offenders of that law. another favourite is to imply that the gay population in the country is as a result of foreign recruiters and their agents. It defies logic. it’s almost laughable. That the gay in a Katwe slum is as a result of a foreign influence, and by the way the greater majority by far of gay Ugandans constitute the lower class, even Ssempa’s posterboy(George Oundo, who has since reverted to his “old ways”) was got from the slum. And how the mainstream churches got sucked into this cesspool, I can understand the Muslims take on the subject(refer to your post on Mwanga having learned his trait from Arab traders), and the evangelicals too. (Never mind they were trading accusations of sodomy at each other, in an apparent power play or outright jealousy) only to have to undergo a climbdown.

    And again with your “Euro-American lobby”. If it makes you feel better please continue to associate me and my position with them. You never know it may gain traction with the truth. I’m for everything that makes you happy, believe me!

    PS: copy it into your clip board, you may need to paste a few times yet!

  8. Icearc,

    Believe it or not, I am at peace with myself . I do not occupy my time thinking about the disgusting nature of what you are promoting, but I am sure that you think about gay sex all the time, hence the reason why you want this grotesque act to be universal and open inside Uganda, especially for your visiting western friends. Unlike Ssempa and gang, I have no interest in going to research gay porn or anything of that nature. I am not interested in getting anyone killed, but I have a strong interest in ensuring that the emergent pro-gay advocacy groups here in Uganda are crushed before they become as powerful and all controlling as their masters—the Euro-American Gay Lobby. The sort of pro-gay advocacy you are offering here is one of the strong reasons why the Bahati bill (in revised form) should be passed or certain provisions in the bill be used to properly bolster the Sexual Offences Act. The tone of your posting seems triumphant, but the last time I checked gayism remains illegal and reviled by most Ugandans. On the matter of rejecting gayism in Uganda, there is no “elite” and “plebians”; no “bourgeoise” and “proletariat”; no “haves” and “have-nots”; no “urban” and “rural”. All you have are Ugandans defending their right to protect who they are against the globalizing tendencies of Western sexual deviance. I will gladly accept the view that the fight against gayism is led by a loose expedient adhoc alliance of the [hated corrupt] political elite, religious leaders and the urban middle-class with the strong support of the poorer segments of society. In fact, many of us from middle-class background who were partly-educated abroad actually have first hand knowledge of how powerful the homosexual juggernaut is in the West. I agree with Ssempa and Ugandan Social Workers that if we remain docile on this matter, we will wake up 20 years later and find ourselves fighting to maintain the definition of marriage and the guidelines for child adoption. Despite your victorious tone, pro-gay advocacy in Uganda is comatose and is only being kept alive artificially by infusion of foreign cash. But soon that source of cash infusion will be cut and gay advocacy in the public sphere will suddenly vanish in the same way it suddenly appeared in last few years. No doubt, gay advocacy will continue to exist on internet pages, but never on the streets of Uganda. By the way, in African culture, there is no such thing as “Gay” and “Straight”. So there is nothing to polarize in Uganda. If you want such Gay/Straight distinctions please move yourself and your allies inside Uganda to San Francisco or Amsterdam.

  9. Maazi NCO,

    You know ,you’d make a good court jester. But back to the point, I just realised in all the back and forth we’ve been having, the likelihood of anything being passed seems to decrease exponentionally each minute,hour,day,week ……………. sigh …………. to your chagrin! You and your ilk tried to polarise the country into straight and gay. You tried to intimidate those opposed to the bill by “accusing” them off being gay irrespective of their orientation, and all kinds of underhand machinations ……………………. but you failed FAILED and miserably too. Indeed one of the tactics employed was to accuse many of those anti-bill as being under the influence of foreign agents, and that has been on show here ………………… but it got too old, that cow got milked even to the last drop of saliva in it’s mouth.

    I am so at peace unlike you because ……………. I don’t engage in the perverted exercise of imagining what sex, what kind of sex others are having, etc

    And I used to think that education tempers prejudice and liberates the mind to think clearly, boy was I wrong! While the people in the slums leave next to gays, know of their orientation, work with them, are friends of them……….. etc, the indoctrinated portion of the elite/the enslaved elite are so obsessed with their putrid and contorted doctrine to think straight. And that portion of the elite I blame on the rote system of education, always cramming and memorizing facts but none the wiser on how to deploy those facts. But I won’t waste any of my pity on that gang! The free spirits of the lower classes, God bless them, it’s no surprise Jesus came for that class, the have-nots , they always seem to think more clearly and know what matters. Surprisingly, they seem more at peace, than we, the educated ,and the rich on their high pedestals built on pompous bigotry.

    O quam cito transit gloria mundi

  10. Icearc,

    Very clever eh? You fail to address your suprious claims about “500,000 gays in Uganda”. Please inform your foreign masters that homosexual activism in Uganda is dead on arrival (DOA). Your beloved masters may be winning victory upon victory on American/ European soil, but they will not win a single victory in Uganda. Let your pay masters understand that the more they push for decriminalization and space for pro-gay activism, the more we shall push to keep Gayism away (or “underground” as you will love to say—Yes, sexual depravity is better kept invisible from our young impressionable children, okay?). I have noted how gay advocates are cleverly trying to associate historic battles against racism with their struggle to devastate African culture in favour of establishing an exotic base for Western sex tourists. Let them understand that African people are intelligent enough to tell the difference between a struggle for human dignity (i.e.anti-racism activism) and a struggle to force sexual depravity of the worst order on them. Tell all those lobbyists spending millions to promote homosexuality in Africa that they have already failed. If they think that the “South African situation” will be replicated all over the continent then they are terribly mistaken. In fact the “South African situation” made us understand the dangers of having a libertarian constitution that includes legal homosexuality which is nothing but a trojan horse for Gay Marriage, Gay Pride March and Gay Adoption of children. Despite pressure from EU and USA, the Kenyans have already drafted a new constitution that is so clear that your friends in the Western Gay Lobby will not be able to sponsor their African agents to replicate the “South African Situation” in the courts. In Uganda, there shall be no free exotic gay sex for tourists as is in Thailand. No amount of false propaganda on “human rights” shall make us think differently of this sexual depravity.

  11. Maazi NCO,

    There you go again! With that “Euro-American Gay Lobby”. You seem to be obsessed with the “Euro-American Gay Lobby”. Saying it often enough won’t make it any more true.

    The fact still stands that Ugandan gays exist. Their existence is not a product of any foreign influence, where that influence may be apparent is their recent visibility, their activism for rights. You and many confuse their increased visibility as a given that they have suddenly exploded in numbers. Furthermore, you also confuse any foreign activism for gay rights as a conversion mechanism for straight hetero– Ugandans. That’s where we defer.

    Gay “gene” or not is insignificant in my opinion(I am sure you are aware that we are the products of genetic interaction with environmental factors, genotype does not translate exactly or equate to phenotype), the climate is so contentious, biased and poisonous for any scientific inquiry either to be objective or for it to be accepted as objective by the protagonist and belligerent sides. One side or the other will always find it impossible to accept any research conclusions that contradict their assertion. Indeed there have been many dubious and biased research papers on both sides conducted on preconceived and prejudiced starting points of the authors.

    But If the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is the so called prescription to the “problem”, you will find it woefully unenforceable and will not meet the objectives of the proponents, gay individuals will remain gay albeit less visible and underground, after all human psyche is all about, out of mind, out of sight. The “if you can’t see them then they don’t exist” posture, but of course they do! Whether you,I or anyone get down on our knees and pray or wish them away, they’ll still exist no matter what! Even if we don’t see them in public, I’ll bet my Holy Bible that they’ll still exist!

  12. Icearc,

    500, 000 Ugandans are Gay? What a funny joke. Gay propagandists are very funny and cannot distinguish between figments of their imagination and reality. Its like those idiots who claimed to have discovered the “Gay Gene”. Where did you pull your statistics from? Did you conduct a census to find out how many Ugandans are practitioners of this Western debauchery? Or are you dependent on the unscientific mumbo jumbo (masquerading as science) from Gay propagandists which claims that in every nation in the world, 5% to 10% of citizens are gagging for Western-style sexual deviance? Do you think that manufacturing the magic number “500, 000 Gays” will change our opinion on this issue? Will make us sympathise with debauchery? More than 96% of Ugandans do not want Gayism. Those who disagree with our right to defend our values and culture should move to San Franscisco where they can practise their Western debauchery with Pride. The Ugandan people will never bend over for the Euro-American Gay Lobby.

  13. Maazi NCO,

    a bigoted opinion can never be consistent in application. You are quick to portray the homophobes in Africa as intelligent, and the LGBT individuals as Zombie imbeciles who are inherently an influence of the foreign actors. Which is what I would expect…….typical, typical bigotry! Apparently you seem to think that anyone to hold my opinion, the prerequisite is either to be influenced or funded by foreign activists. I’ll take your insult in stride, after all I am so at peace, that I am not offended by such remarks

    It would be so funny if it wasn’t so sad!

    You know, many African men will blame the breakdown on family on everyone apart from ourselves, numero uno always gets a pass. The reason why for long divorce rates were down was for the most part by far, not about the character of the man, but the patience and subservience of the woman. The woman would persist( was trapped due to dowry payment, societal stigma) despite physical and verbal abuse, infidelity of the man etc.. Now here’s where the so called nationalist/traditionalist bigots get it wrong, they’ll blame the breakdown of marriage on the women becoming more aware of their rights rather than pointing a finger at the men.

    And that thinking is so mainstream and apparent among those that usurp and wear on their sleeve the nationalistic/traditionalist propaganda.

    Common sense seems to remain at the door all too often when the LGBT topic comes up for discussion. You and your ilk seem to think, that someone is out to recruit “straight” African kids into the LGBT orientation. That the over 500,000 gays in Uganda by some accounts, are the result of aggressive recruitment by foreign liberals. Has it never occurred to you that what was always an undercover and closeted orientation is only making the news because increasingly they have become more “visible” as they become more self aware of their rights. Now here’s the problem with bigoted thinking, many will blame divorce, LGBT orientation on foreign liberal influence. If a woman who has been perennially beaten, abused, etc is informed of her rights and she acts on that info, who is the cause of the divorce, the one who educated her about her rights, or the abusive husband? That answer is consistently the former if you ask the bigot.

    And the bigots just don’t get it, all your efforts at incarcerating, and discriminating against them will never turn them straight, it’ll just send them underground and below the radar, which is just as well, the burying of the head in sand, is typical of bigoted thinking.

  14. Icearc,

    You are as good as your masters in the Euro-American Gay Propagandist Movement. This not about Buturo or Ssempa— none of whom I am particularly fond of. This is not a battle between new and old western ideas, in which we (Africans) are the pawns. The battle is between our right to preserve our centuries-old culture against the globalizing tendencies of Western cultural deviance. Contrary to Western stereotypes, Africans are an intelligent people. We have the cognitive abilities required to tackle our own issues. We are not pawns in the hands of anybody. I am not a pawn in the hands of any White American man carrying a bible. We have got law that tackles people that defile female minors and now it is the aspiration of most Ugandans that our children (especially males) be shielded from Western debauchery as peddled by trojan horse NGOs and certain Western-controlled UN Agencies. I do not need Mr. Rick Warren to convince me about what I see happening today in Uganda as far as homosexuality is concerned. Some westerners through their NGOs are trying to indoctrinate our children with gayism while pretending to be there to help poor people materially. I am sure you are familiar with the case of erstwhile UNICEF boss in Uganda who authorized the distribution of pro-gay literature in schools without the knowledge of the Education Ministry. I am sure you are aware of the recent establishment of phony pro-gay advocacy groups in Kampala by cash-rich Euro-American Gay Lobbies. Now, these paid-up phony groups want to impose gayism on our people under the pretext of fighting for “human rights”. It is a shame that you Icearc think that your own people are unintelligent pawns in the hands of apparently super-intelligent Western people. Now, I can understand some ignorant Westerners thinking that Africans are unintelligent, but I cannot understand why an African will think the same. Is hedonistic Western culture so alluring to you that you refuse to acknowledge the right of your own people to oppose the imposition of deviant behaviour on them? Several African nations have failed in the area of leadership and ensuring the material well-being of their citizens, but one area where we the Africans have never failed is in the area of maintaining family-oriented, solidarity-based, communal societies. This is what has kept our continent going inspite of our many problems. As a fellow African, I am dead sure that you know that we are never going to give up our way of life in favour of the same social liberal nonsense that has led the West to become leaders in the area of high divorces, family fragmentation and suicides.

  15. I am reminded of this blog by Hussein Ibish. It addresses Arabic/Muslim culture but discusses universal issues about sexuality, modernity, and the clash between purportedly ‘Western’ and ‘authentic’ or ‘native’ cultures.

  16. In my opinion, I find it ironic that this is not a battle between African traditional ideals and western liberalism, rather it’s a battle between old/conservative western ideals and new western ideals, we Africans are just the pawns in this struggle, but we just can’t see it yet.

    Some of you do.

    It’s not for us to tell you that though. There’s been far too much of that kind of thing in the past.

    We’re not immune to some of the kinds of things that happen in many African states either. Just look at the mess in the Balkans. Ethnic Cleansing. Genocide. Tribal conflicts and Religious conflicts.

    It’s only an accident of history that Europeans aren’t complaining about the Africanisation of Europe. Kush and Carthage rather than Greece and Rome, with tribal feuding between Celt and Gaul, Saxon and Slav that cuts across the artificial boundary lines drawn by the colonisers from Zmbabwe and Morocco.

    The Thirty Years War was every bit as bad as the Difaqane.

    For God’s sake learn from our mistakes.

  17. Maazi NCO, I just feel frustrated that people who deserve to go to jail for actually infringing on other fellow Ugandans’ rights(especially,the politicians) have no shame in legislating our morality. I can’t believe people who have the gall to routinely loot our coffers, engage in electoral fraud, etc feel that they can take the so called “high road” to lecture anyone on any topic. Yes, I find it bigoted for persons apparently to be less horrified(and many seemed to have lost all disgust) at a young girl being defiled than what two consenting adults are up to in the privacy of their rooms. Why should we care at all? Why should we engage in what is practically a societal voyeurism for all intents and purposes?

    What constitutes African culture, tradition? The Sebei in eastern Uganda can no longer circumcise their young girls as it is, the practice is rightly banned as being an act of female genital mutilation. Do the Sebei traditionalists have good grounds to feel agrieved as a result? Shall we even listen to any such argument? Won’t they accuse us of succumbing to westernization/western norms and morality? How would we defend ourselves against that assertion without looking like we sold our souls to the west?

    But what I am not for, is the curtailing of one’s right to express their opinion, I am for free speech as long as it does not lead to actions that infringe on another/other citizens(s) rights. I am against both liberal and conservative extremists, and I make no distinction between both, extremism is extremism, fundamentalism is fundamentalism left or right,liberal or conservative! These excesses exist in the west and feed of each other, as one group becomes more radicalised so does their antagonist. We Africans should remain as uninterested and disinterested spectators in that battle royale and move on with our lives and take stock of what we need to do to overcome the real challenges in our lives…….and they are many and of huge magnitude.

    By the way, there is no guarantee that any majority carries an inherent predisposition to being right. Our brothers in the US, Americans of colour, won their hard earned and deserved rights they enjoy today, not as a result of a referendum or wide public support, but as a result of a Supreme court decision and sympathetic federal administration. The dictatorship of a few on the majority at least in the southern states. A man’s inherent human rights is not dependent on the whims of the majority, but rather they are absolute. Just imagine the situation in the Gulf Arab states where Christians can’t construct a church precisely because the majority have deemed it so, how can such a position be defend-able at all or in Switzerland where minarets on mosques were banned.

    In my opinion, I find it ironic that this is not a battle between African traditional ideals and western liberalism, rather it’s a battle between old/conservative western ideals and new western ideals, we Africans are just the pawns in this struggle, but we just can’t see it yet. It’s for that reason conservative evangelist pastors will leave their palatial mansions and spare some time to engage in pseudo-social engineering across the great pond, that has eluded them on the home front. And I don’t excuse the extremist liberals of their actions over here too!

  18. Wow Icearc,

    Did I touch a raw nerve? Anyway I am sure the Euro-American Gay Lobby are proud of you. The aspiration of 96% of Ugandans is to have a legislation that will stop trojan horse NGOs and certain Western-controlled UN agencies that claim to be in the country to help poor people, but end up distributing booklets that say that Gayism is “lovely”. You are probably aware of the UN agency boss in Kampala who was sacked because that agency distributed literature to school children without knowledge of the Education Ministry. It is all well to claim libertarianism (i.e. Gays are adults and can do their thing in privacy), but we know that this just the beginning. If we let them be, then they will ask for the right to dress like half-naked clowns and march down Kampala in so-called Gay Pride Parade. If we allow that, then they will demand gay marriage and insist that we allow them to adopt our children. If we allow that, they will want to ban 96% of Ugandans from expressing their disgust for Gayism as they do in many Western countries where mere disapproval of homosexuality can cost you the crown of Miss USA, can cost you your job, can even lead to police arrest for “spreading hate”. No Icearc, we shall not bend over for the foreigners. Icearc why not tell your lobby pals the truth? Uganda will never be the place where Gay Tourists can come and sample African people. There will never be Gay Pride March in Kampala

  19. Maazi NCO, is patriotism measured by how much one hates their own citizens? What has irked me the most is like-minded brothers of your ilk who have clothed raw bigotry and hate under the guise of nationalism,faith,so called “tradition” and sovereignty. I for one refuse to hate any Ugandan who does not wrong anyone else or deprive them of their rights.

    It’s ironic that you would associate the backers of this bill and/or the bill as patriots and nationalists. In a country where one in three teenagers are pregnant at anytime, defilement of our girls is a national pass-time, corruption is endemic, healthcare is shambolic to say the least etc…………………….where is the nationalism and patriotism to deal with issues that really affect us, why aren’t the all great nationalists crying out at the plight of our girls, the poor, calling for accountability of politiicans and government, decrying the state of our health systems. Where are they who would call themselves nationalist like you Maazi? No, the apparent patriots of this country have decided what two consenting adults are up to in their bedrooms is of national priority, of the highest importance. To hell, with protecting our girls, fighting corruption, preventing electoral fraud…………..they wan’t to know what we, all Ugandans, are up to when the bedroom door closes. What’s next? A definition of acceptable and unacceptable heterosex?

    Is Buturo one of your patriots? The same feared Dr. Buturo who in the second term of President Obote’s rule wreaked havoc on the populace in the central region especially Kampala, the one who used to load people on to trucks (to God knows where) which always came back empty. And years later has resurfaced as a born again Christian with absolutely no public apology or criminal sanctions for his actions that led to suffering and death of many an innocent soul. Trust me I have absolutely no appetite, desire or even the ability(I become tone deaf when he opens his trap) to hear what Dr. Nsaba Buturo has to say about anything, let alone faith in God!

    But sometimes I do despair, just this week a catholic priest was arrested for defiling a young girl and infecting her with HIV in the process, was there a national outrage? And this is not a rare event, Is Uganda the best place for pedophiles or what? If the Vatican only knew, that all they had to do was transfer all their problem priests here, there wouldn’t be even a whisper of condemnation from Ugandan society.

    The powers that be have managed to distract us Ugandans from the real issues, I don’t believe even for a second that government was not aware of this bill from inception, this whole thing is a game of Russian roulette with people’s lives that in the end paints Museveni in a good light abroad while tying up the Christian conservatives and Muslims vote with hope that they’ll get what they want, and all this conveniently so close to the election period. El president is pulling out all the stops, creating myriads of districts(and polling centres), new currency notes and a new currency denomination, rushing electoral legislation through parliament etc, even I have to give credit when it’s due, pure perfection from the master.

    If there’s something I got from my faith(in God), it’s peace of mind, and that was after turmoil in my personal life. And precisely because it was hard won, if I remain in that zone, that is payment enough. I am a strongly opinionated individual, because I believe silence breeds injustice too many a time, this time it’s the AHB, but there’re a myriad of issues that concern me in this country. and I will not fail to give my opinion as it arises. I am comfortable in my profession and its renumeration and rewards(it pays for the internet bills,and as a result of the undersea cable to Mombasa,the same money before pays for twice the speed!), but Maazi NCO please feel free to send my contacts to in your words, the Euro-American Gay Lobby, a little more money doesn’t hurt!

  20. icearc,

    It seems that you are a full-time consultant to Euro-American Gay Lobby. I hope you are well paid for your troubles. The word “rejects” should rightly be in quotation marks. Certainly the Bill as written by Bahati is quite crude. With time, it is likely that relevant segments of the Bahati Bill will be infused into existing legislation. What is happening in Foxy Museveni’s cabinet is a simple game of musical chairs. Anyway, time will tell who is right- you the Ugandan consultant to the Western Gays or me the Ugandan nationalist.

  21. That bill is dead, however the Nsaba Buturos and Bahatis have a fall back, there was already a penal code offence, a holdover from the British colonial code(instituted in 1950).

    .

    “Any person who has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature; has carnal knowledge of an animal; or permits a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature, commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment for life”.

    Section 145 of the Penal Code Act, Cap.120 under Unnatural Offences

    But the difference being that the this one on the books is far harder to prove in courts of law without eyewitness corroboration and/or non-consenting partner, hence the motivation of the Bahatis, Buturos and Ssempas.

  22. I want this bill’s head cut off, a stake through the heart, buried at a crossroads and the grave sewn with salt, garlic and holy water. Then nuked from orbit, just to make sure.

    While I’m cautiously optimistic now, until that’s done, it’s too early to rest.

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