In what appears to be a good sign, Parliament’s agenda for today has the Anti-Homosexuality Bill moved down to item number 6 on the listing of business to come. From today’s order paper:
NOTICE OF BUSINESS TO FOLLOW
1. BILLS SECOND READING THE PETROLEUM (REFINING, GAS PROCESSING AND CONVERSION, TRANSPORTATION AND STORAGE) BILL, 2012
2. CONSIDERATION AND ADOPTION OF THE REPORT OF THE SESSIONAL COMMITTEE ON PRESIDENTIAL AFFAIRS ON THE PETITION AGAINST ILLEGAL/UNJUST REMOVAL FROM SERVICE AND BREACH OF CONTRACT BY THE UGANDA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES UNION (Chairperson, Committee on Presidential Affairs)
3. CONSIDERATION AND ADOPTION OF THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE NATIONAL ECONOMY ON THE STATE OF THE ECONOMY (Chairperson, Committee on National Economy)
4. CONSIDERATION AND ADOPTION OF THE REPORT ON THE ADHOC COMMITTEE INVESTIGATING THE ENERGY SECTOR (Chairperson, Adhoc Committee on Energy Sector)
5. CONSIDERATION AND ADOPTION OF THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL ECONOMY ON THE REQUEST BY GOVERNMENT TO BORROW SDR 87.1 MILLION (USD 135.0M) FROM THE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION (IDA) OF THE WORLD BANK GROUP FOR FINANCING OF THE WATER MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECT (WMDP) (Hon. Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development)
6. THE ANTI-HOMOSEXUALITY BILL, 2012
7. MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT TO URGE GOVERNMENT TO BAIL OUT SEMBULE STEEL MILLS LTD FROM THE INTENDED SALE OF ITS PROPERTIES
8. THE PUBLIC ORDER MANAGEMENT BILL, 2012
9. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ON THE STATUS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES
10. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ON THE AFRICAN SPACE RESEARCH PROGRAM (ASRP)
11. PETITION AGAINST THE OFFICIAL RECEIVER OF UGANDA ELECTRICITY BOARD (UEB) AND UEB (IN LIQUIDATION) FOR NON-PAYMENT OF GRATUITY
The Accountants Bill is on the agenda for current business as are various petitions and a motion regarding HIV/AIDS policy. Given the pace of action thus far, it appears to me that the anti-gay bill will not considered before the December 15 recess.
They beat it down any more and it will have to be renamed for 2013.
2013/2014/2014.. will not change anything… homosexuality in Uganda remains a dirty thing…… un speakable of… shameful….. and….. and…..
The discussion generated by Bahati-Kadaga is helping us in the long run. Of course the screaming hysterics still make a lot of noise, but many Ugandans are becoming more accustomed to the idea that ‘homosexuality’ is fact of life that need not be a cause for ‘alarm’.
Good call: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/12/12/uk-home-office-threatens-to-ban-ugandan-politicians-from-entering-britain-over-anti-gay-law/
We should try very hard not to aim sanctions at Ugandans generally, but at the ‘guilty individuals’.
I would add that, in the event of the UG Parliament voting on the Bill, we know who voted for and who voted against, so that only those who support Bahati-Kadaga are so ‘disciplined’.
BTW, I think this may well be sign that Kadaga is weakened. M7 is apparently not happy with Kadaga for a number of reasons, and her trying to look ‘presidential’ by bashing gays has backfired badly. She runs a ‘talking shop’, not a country, and her ‘presidential pretentions’ were surely somewhat misplaced.
THURSDAY 13 DECEMBER
Presidential Address (rescheduled from last Thursday today).
Here’s a video clip of Premier Mbabazi talking about the Bill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SB5pJPQgnY
It’s a somewhat ‘nuanced’ performance. Playing for time?
I can remind him of the dates regarding ‘amendment’ of the colonial-era laws: 2000 (lesbians criminalized), 2005 (life imprisonment for certain consensual activities introduced).
I gather there will shortly be an announcement on whether the parliament now goes into recess until February. If it does, then I suppose that Kadaga’s Kristmas has been Kancelled.
Will it be Kadaga’s Krappy New Year next? (The Bill popped up last February if you remember …)
The former Leader of the Opposition, Morris Ogenga-Latigo, questions (to put it mildly) the morality of the Bill: http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22603&catid=37&Itemid=66
Here it comes
There it goes
Round and round and round.
Now you see it
Now you don’t
Perhaps it is just sound
And fury that is meant to be
Distraction for a people ground
By war and graft and poverty.
Anon. 21st century