Uganda's eighth parliament officially dissolved; fate of legislation still unclear

Apparently without a motion to continue the 23 bills unfinished, the Eighth Parliament will dissolve at midnight.

A proclamation to mark the official end and dissolution of the Eighth Parliament of Uganda has been issued by Parliament. The Eighth Parliament will stand officially dissolved at midnight Wednesday.The Speaker of the Eighth Parliament Rt. Hon. Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi issued the proclamation before being sworn in as a member of the ninth Parliament.
Meanwhile, the swearing in of new members of the Uganda Parliament has closed Wednesday with a total of 374 members taking oath during the last three days.
Article 81 of the Constitution requires every person elected to parliament to take and subscribe to the oath of allegiance and the oath of Member of Parliament before assuming office. No person shall sit or vote in Parliament before taking and subscribing the oaths. 
MPs will convene at Parliament on Thursday for the first sitting where they will elect the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Parliament from amongst themselves. The fisrt sitting of Parliament will be presided over by the Chief Justice who will oversee the election of the Speaker of Parliament.

Tomorrow begins the Ninth Parliament and it remains to be seen whether or not the new Speaker will allow committees to pick up work on bills unfinished from the last session. For months, observers assumed that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill would die if not passed by May 18. However, recent statements from Parliament spokespersons and from bill author David Bahati have led to uncertainty about the procedures. On the AHB, if the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee report becomes the basis for action on the floor, the bill remains a serious threat to the civil rights of all Ugandans, and in particular those who express any same-sex intimacy.

Committee report suggested minimal changes to Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Last week, one of the claims made by supporters of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill was that the death penalty had been removed. Some media picked up this claim and reported it without critical analysis. In fact, the bill never made it far enough to have any alterations, and, as noted here, the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee report did not, in fact, suggest the removal of the death penalty for aggravated homosexuality.
A paper designated as the final report of the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee was leaked last Thursday, just ahead of Friday’s final session. I have good reasons to believe that the report did come from the committee although I cannot say for certain that the report would have been presented on the floor of the Parliament had the bill gotten that far. You can read the report, converted to a .pdf, by clicking here.
To help see what a revised bill would have looked like, I compared the original Anti-Homosexuality Bill with the report. This version makes the changes called for in the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee report (Click the link). In this version the sections crossed out were in the original bill and those underlined are the ones suggested by the committee.
Even after the changes, the penalty for private, consensual  same-sex intimacy would still be life in jail and the death penalty would remain since it is the penalty provided for aggravated defilement in Uganda. Clauses 4, 7, 8, 14, 16 & 17 were deleted but a new penalty for participating in the marriage of a same-sex couples. Presumably, this would discourage ministers from performing the ceremonies. Even if the bill had been amended in the manner suggested by the committee, the bill would have defined homosexual behavior in a way that criminalized the most modest forms of intimacy with either life in prison or death for HIV positive individuals.
Reporters should carefully review  this committee report before taking statements from bill supporters at face value.

David Bahati to become Ethics Minister?

According to the Daily Monitor, Anti-Homosexuality Bill author  David Bahati is on President Museveni’s short list to become Minister of Ethic and Integrity.

President’s shortlist
Vice-President: Gilbert Bukenya or Edward Ssekandi or Margaret Atengo.
Prime Minister: Apolo Nsibambi or Aggrey Awori or Amelia Kyambadde.
1st Deputy Premier/EA Affairs: Eriya Kategaya (he could also stay on as minister for East Africa Affairs only.
2nd Deputy Premier/Minister Without Portfolio: Amama Mbabazi.
Third Deputy Prime Minister/Tourism: Moses Ali.
Oil & Petroleum: Amelia Kyambadde.
Energy: Irene Muloni.
Foreign Affairs: Ruhakana Rugunda.
Security: Betty Bigombe. Teso Affairs: Grace Akello.
Internal Affairs: Kahinda Otafiire.
Kampala:Beatrice Wabudeya.
Ethics: David Bahati.

So the man who brought Uganda the Anti-Homosexuality Bill might move from the back bench to the front bench? If I understand Uganda’s parliamentary procedure correctly, Bahati’s initiatives would not need to go through the private member’s procedure of getting permission from Parliament. However, the upside is that he perhaps would need government support for any bills. At the end of the last session, the government went on record as opposing the AHB as written.
It is hard to see an appointment to the Ethics post as anything but an encouragement of Bahati’s efforts.

American Psychiatric Association representatives issue statement against Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Earlier this evening, the American Psychiatric Association’s legislative body formally condemned the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda. Their action will now go to the APA Board of Trustees where it is expected to become official APA policy.
Although the bill appears to be finished for this Parliament, it may be back during the next one. The APA reps wanted to make clear to mental health professionals in Uganda that the proposed bill was counter to professional guidance. Here is the action paper:

Action Paper  
Title: Ugandan Anti-homosexuality Bill
Whereas:  The Hon. David Bahati, a member of the Ugandan Parliament, has introduced an Anti-Homosexuality Bill in the Ugandan Parliament calling for:

  1. Seven years of imprisonment for anyone who attempts to engage in homosexual contact
  2. Life imprisonment for anyone who engages in sexual penetration of a member of the same gender;
  3. Death for “aggravated homosexuality” which includes repeated offenses of homosexuality or engaging in a homosexual act while HIV-positive.
  4. Imprisonment of up to three years for failing to report violations of the statute within 24 hours of awareness of the offense

Whereas:  The bill is based on a misguided attempt to “protect” the traditional heterosexual family from corruption and to prevent the corruption of traditional Ugandan concepts of morality by Western influences;
Whereas: the bill is predicated on the assertion that “same-sex attraction is not an innate and immutable characteristic” and that Ugandans can be seduced into homosexuality if Western thought takes hold;
Whereas:  the Ugandan National Association of Social Workers has issued a position paper supporting the concept that homosexuality is pathological drawing from religious concepts and from “scientific” studies of 50 years ago that have long since been discredited by the scientific community;
Whereas:  the death penalty is mandated for HIV positive gay people who engage in same sex contact but a similar penalty is not mandated for HIV positive heterosexual people who engage in sexual relations despite the fact that, in Africa, the primary mode of HIV transmission is through heterosexual sexual contact;
Whereas:  the Ugandan tabloid, the Rolling Stone, called for gays to be lynched and published a list of people alleged to be gay;
Whereas:  at least one gay activist in Uganda has been murdered after being listed in the Rolling Stone — which Ugandan police have attributed to a robbery;
Be It Resolved: That the American Psychiatric Association reaffirms its position that there is no credible scientific evidence that same sex attraction is pathological, chosen, needs “cure,” or entails threat to heterosexual families or to children;
That the American Psychiatric Association condemns societal scapegoating and stigmatization of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people anywhere in the world;
That the American Psychiatric Association condemns criminalization of homosexual behavior and calls upon the Ugandan legislature to reject the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
Refer to:  Council on Minority Mental Health and Health Disparities
Author or Authors:
David L. Scasta, M.D., DFAPA, AAOL for the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists

I helped work on this paper and believe that, once official policy, the APA will use this statement to reach out to Uganda’s mental health and medical communities in the coming months.

Uganda's Monitor provides post mortem on 8th Parliament

Uganda’s Daily Monitor provides some insight into the end of the Eighth Parliament and the unfinished business they left behind. According to this article, over 20 bills were not completed.
On the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, the Monitor reports:

The eighth Parliament officially closed business on Friday, leaving behind a number of high-profile Bills that had been expected to pass – among them the controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

The Bill has garnered widespread international condemnation, notably criticised by Western leaders and human rights activists who have called it ‘inhuman’.
A private initiative of Ndorwa West MP David Bahati, its original form introduced the death penalty for “serial offenders” or HIV-positive people engaging in same-sex acts, as well as imprisonment for those who do not report those suspected of being gay, among others.
Adhering to international pressure, President Museveni set up a commission to investigate the implications of passing the Bill and recommended that it be withdrawn.
But Parliament being independent of government, the Bill was retained. It has since been amended to have the death penalty removed.  As soon as the Bill was listed on the parliamentary order paper, pressure in the House was high as activists filled the gallery in anticipation.

But in the end, it was not debated – along with 21 others, including the HIV/AIDS Prevention & Control Bill, 2010 the Regional Governments Bill, 2009 and the long-awaited Marriage and Divorce Bill.

If the report from the Legal and Parliamentary Afffairs committee that I have is the final and official report, then it is not accurate to say that the death penalty was removed.
The article does give some insight into why the women MPs walked out of Parliament on Wednesday, leading to the loss of the quorum. This action may have kept the Anti-Homosexuality Bill from getting a vote.

Jane Alisemera, chairperson of the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association, accused Attorney General Khiddu Makubuya of “killing” the Marriage and Divorce Bill, which she says has been on the backburner for 45 years.
“During our interactions with him, he said he had no problem with the document,” Alisemera said. “When Speaker Ssekandi suggested that it be debated on Wednesday, he said he was not ready for it.”

Mr Makubuya informed Parliament last week that the Marriage and Divorce Bill would not be tabled in Parliament as government was still consulting on the matter, prompting women legislators to storm out of the House. If the Marriage and Divorce Bill is passed and becomes law, it would abolish forced marriage and allow women to divorce their husbands on the basis of cruelty, among others.