Uganda’s Parliament May Pass the Anti-Homosexuality Bill Soon

Within two weeks if this report is to be believed. While I cannot confirm that this source is trustworthy, the basic news that the Parliament is set to act on the bill is consistent with what I am hearing from sources in Uganda.

Here is an ominous aspect of the report.

The speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga has today committed herself that in two weeks time parliament will pass the Anti-Homo Bill. Kadaga says that the passing of the Anti-Homo bill will be a Christmas gift to Ugandans who have been on front line in the fight against homosexuality.

Speaker Kadaga committed herself during a meeting with a coalition of religious, political, cultural leaders held at parliament where she said that Uganda is an independent country which operates under its constitution. We should stop dancing on the tune of western countries. We have the right to reject any things which is against our culture.

“Am going to allow Hon Bahati to proceed with his bill and make sure that it is passed within the period of two weeks. As leaders we should listen to the voice of our people. It is our responsibility to protect our country against homosexuality ,our value, culture and character” Speaker Kadaga noted

Elsewhere religious, cultural and political leader said that all homosexual practitioners in Uganda should be killed because homosexual is not allowed in Uganda.

“It is an abomination in Uganda for a man to marry a fellow man and a woman to get married to her fellow woman. We strongly condemn and oppose the devil called homosexuality on our soil. As religious, cultural leaders we urge the Uganda’s brave (Kadaga) to be strong, farm and courageous while fighting Homosexual in Uganda. The Western world should take their moral behaviors away from Africa Uganda in particular” Religious leaders noted.

 

18 thoughts on “Uganda’s Parliament May Pass the Anti-Homosexuality Bill Soon”

  1. A growing number of gay men and women on the ground in Uganda are increasingly coming round to the thinking that passing the bill is the best way forward. See my thoughts here … http://sebaspace.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/let-the-bahati-nazi-anti-gay-bill-be-passed/

    It’s a bit tongue in cheek in places but the general thrust is as serious as a heart attack. This bill needs to be passed so that we deal with that result rather than all the mischief and idle speculation from friends and detractors.

    1. Sebaspace — My assumption is that the bill will be immediately challenged in court. I think you will need that to give Museveni support to send it back to Parliament.

  2. My big worry about the Bill passing is a ‘human’ one – and is on many levels:-

    1. what happens to individual gay Ugandans – of course;

    2. what happens to those who choose to exercise their freedom of speech and conscience with regard regard to their fellow citizens;

    3. the precedent set by the passing of laws that attack freedom of speech and conscience;

    4. the promotion of suspicion and violence in Ugandan society at a time when the overall political situation is becoming ‘delicate’;

    5. the diversion of attention and resources away from those things that ordinary Ugandans need for their well being;

    6. the damage to Uganda’s reputation and the resultant loss of good will on the part many in ‘the West’.

    All of these matters are important to Uganda, as all the Ugandans I speak to here in London will tell you. I even know Ugandans who are becoming reluctant to admit they are Ugandans (one now tells people that he is Rwandan, because he finds the reception ‘better’) because they are very embarrassed by what is going on.

    My message to Ugandan MPs like ‘Maazi NCO’ (who seems to have gone rather quite these past few days) is this: “be very careful what you wish for!”

    (Of course, there is a small chance, given what is undoubtedly happening ‘behind the scenes’ in Kampala, that the Bill could be voted upon and defeated.)

  3. You might well be correct, ‘Sebaspace’. It would at least ‘clarify’ the issue, and ‘smoke out’ the true perpetrators (i.e. the MPs who vote for the Bill).

  4. *or even a ‘playwright’!* (that’s what happens when one cannot write as fast as one thinks!)

  5. When did “Uganda Picks” get to be a news source?

    I’ve seen recently that the Irish government is withholding aid after fraud was found which channeled funds into the account of the Ugandan Prime Minister that was meant for rebuilding in the north after the fight with Kony. And Janet Museveni has had to refute allegations that she participated in the multi-billion shilling theft scandal at the Office of the Prime Minister. No doubt bringing up the AHB might be a way of shifting focus away from the fraud by scapegoating gays once again.

  6. My view (shared by others) is that the (long planned) re-emergence of the Bill is also (and perhaps primarily) part of the ongoing power-struggles in Kampala.

    For some (eg Bahati) the Bill is a ‘matter of belief’; for others it is a tool in the power games; for others it is, as Lynn suggests, a convenient diversion from corruption. For Uganda as a whole, it could be an unmitigated disaster, and its ‘now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t’ stuff a symptom of the increasingly delicate political situation in that country.

    We have been expecting anther ‘push’ on the Bill around now. The Ogwal resolution discarded by the Pan African Parliament was possibly the ‘opener’ this time round. (The notion that this ‘push’ has something to do with Baird upbraiding Kadaga is just another canard.)

  7. Yes, it is time for the MPs making so much noise in the shadows to go on record with their vote on this issue. Let’s have their faces on the bill seeking to kill a section of their citizens purely on account of who they are. Let the bill be debated and passed!

  8. (Certain things have happened – e.g. armed police* raiding a theatre, a play write being arrested, peaceful meetings being broken up by more armed police* – that would suggest that aspects of the Bill are already being treated as if they were law. The Bill being passed would make things clearer for foreign governments wishing to develop a their response to the situation.)

    * If Ugandans are wondering why there are no armed police around when they are actually needed, they perhaps should wonder no longer!

  9. My big worry about the Bill passing is a ‘human’ one – and is on many levels:-

    1. what happens to individual gay Ugandans – of course;

    2. what happens to those who choose to exercise their freedom of speech and conscience with regard regard to their fellow citizens;

    3. the precedent set by the passing of laws that attack freedom of speech and conscience;

    4. the promotion of suspicion and violence in Ugandan society at a time when the overall political situation is becoming ‘delicate’;

    5. the diversion of attention and resources away from those things that ordinary Ugandans need for their well being;

    6. the damage to Uganda’s reputation and the resultant loss of good will on the part many in ‘the West’.

    All of these matters are important to Uganda, as all the Ugandans I speak to here in London will tell you. I even know Ugandans who are becoming reluctant to admit they are Ugandans (one now tells people that he is Rwandan, because he finds the reception ‘better’) because they are very embarrassed by what is going on.

    My message to Ugandan MPs like ‘Maazi NCO’ (who seems to have gone rather quite these past few days) is this: “be very careful what you wish for!”

    (Of course, there is a small chance, given what is undoubtedly happening ‘behind the scenes’ in Kampala, that the Bill could be voted upon and defeated.)

  10. Yes, it is time for the MPs making so much noise in the shadows to go on record with their vote on this issue. Let’s have their faces on the bill seeking to kill a section of their citizens purely on account of who they are. Let the bill be debated and passed!

  11. *or even a ‘playwright’!* (that’s what happens when one cannot write as fast as one thinks!)

  12. (Certain things have happened – e.g. armed police* raiding a theatre, a play write being arrested, peaceful meetings being broken up by more armed police* – that would suggest that aspects of the Bill are already being treated as if they were law. The Bill being passed would make things clearer for foreign governments wishing to develop a their response to the situation.)

    * If Ugandans are wondering why there are no armed police around when they are actually needed, they perhaps should wonder no longer!

  13. You might well be correct, ‘Sebaspace’. It would at least ‘clarify’ the issue, and ‘smoke out’ the true perpetrators (i.e. the MPs who vote for the Bill).

  14. A growing number of gay men and women on the ground in Uganda are increasingly coming round to the thinking that passing the bill is the best way forward. See my thoughts here … http://sebaspace.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/let-the-bahati-nazi-anti-gay-bill-be-passed/

    It’s a bit tongue in cheek in places but the general thrust is as serious as a heart attack. This bill needs to be passed so that we deal with that result rather than all the mischief and idle speculation from friends and detractors.

    1. Sebaspace — My assumption is that the bill will be immediately challenged in court. I think you will need that to give Museveni support to send it back to Parliament.

  15. My view (shared by others) is that the (long planned) re-emergence of the Bill is also (and perhaps primarily) part of the ongoing power-struggles in Kampala.

    For some (eg Bahati) the Bill is a ‘matter of belief’; for others it is a tool in the power games; for others it is, as Lynn suggests, a convenient diversion from corruption. For Uganda as a whole, it could be an unmitigated disaster, and its ‘now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t’ stuff a symptom of the increasingly delicate political situation in that country.

    We have been expecting anther ‘push’ on the Bill around now. The Ogwal resolution discarded by the Pan African Parliament was possibly the ‘opener’ this time round. (The notion that this ‘push’ has something to do with Baird upbraiding Kadaga is just another canard.)

  16. When did “Uganda Picks” get to be a news source?

    I’ve seen recently that the Irish government is withholding aid after fraud was found which channeled funds into the account of the Ugandan Prime Minister that was meant for rebuilding in the north after the fight with Kony. And Janet Museveni has had to refute allegations that she participated in the multi-billion shilling theft scandal at the Office of the Prime Minister. No doubt bringing up the AHB might be a way of shifting focus away from the fraud by scapegoating gays once again.

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