politics – Page 54 – Warren Throckmorton

Anti-Homosexuality Bill is Next on the Order of Business for Uganda’s Parliament

According to today’s agenda, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill will be the next bill considered by Uganda’s Parliament. Today, the legislative body is slated to act on two bills relating to the oil industry and the Accountants Bill. These bills have been on the agenda for several days and should be nearing a final vote. Given the prior work done on those three bills, the anti-gay bill could come up as soon as tomorrow.

It appears that Speaker Kadaga has given the Anti-Homosexuality Bill higher priority than other business since it was first listed last week. Note the position of the bill on today’s order paper:

NOTICE OF BUSINESS TO FOLLOW

THE ANTI-HOMOSEXUALITY BILL, 2012

MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT TO URGE GOVERNMENT TO BAIL OUT SEMBULE STEEL MILLS LTD FROM THE INTENDED SALE OF ITS PROPERTIES

PRESENTATION, CONSIDERATION AND ADOPTION OF THE REPORT ON THE ADHOC COMMITTEE INVESTIGATING THE ENERGY SECTOR

THE PUBLIC ORDER MANAGEMENT BILL, 2012

Last week on the listing of business to come, the anti-gay bill was listed third after the motion to bail out the steel mill and the adoption of the report on the energy sector. Today the bill is listed ahead of those two items and is the first item to be considered next.

Given the scope of the oil bills and the Accountants Bill, it is not certain that the anti-gay measure will come up tomorrow. However, it appears that the bill will now be the next bill considered after the current business is resolved.

What Uganda Should Be Worrying About

At the same time Uganda is threatening to make consensual same-sex relations punishable by death or life in prison, the nation is facing a jump in the rate of HIV infections. The Ugandan Parliament website reported today on a Ministry of Health briefing which disclosed that the HIV rate has increased to 7.3% in 2011 from 6.4% in 2004.

Given the rush to enact a law depriving gays of life and liberty, one might think that the driver of this increase is homosexuality. However, that is not the case. According to the article, married couples are driving the chamges.

Dr.Musinguzi warned that the HIV/AIDS rates that had gone down in the 1990s have now shot up and require urgent redress. The new statistics point at Women bearing the biggest burden of the disease with 55% of the new infections discovered amongst women.

The research attributes the trend to multiple sexual partners as the key driver to the spread of the disease. 80% of the men interviewed by health experts accepted leaving with concurrent multiple sexual partners while 68% of the women lived the same lifestyle.

The Speaker of Parliament Rt.Hon. Rebecca Kadaga who officiated at the opening of the dialogue re-echoed the need to lay new strategies to reverse the HIV/AIDS trend.

“Although a number of achievements have been made in the fight against AIDS, the epidemic seems to have shifted from single young persons to those married and in long term relationships. I am also concerned that the rich women are now more vulnerable to HIV than others. This is a worrying trend,” the Speaker noted.

Gays are a negligible aspect of the HIV picture in Uganda but the Parliament is wasting time debating homosexuality. The MPs should be spending their time worrying about the sexual behavior of straights. It is beyond belief that the Ugandan Parliament is risking donor funding over the Anti-Homosexuality Bill when the more immediate issue for HIV is infidelity among straights in long term relationships.

Spokesman Says Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill Will Not Be Debated Today UPDATE – NTV Report: Committee Endorses Life in Prison

According to spokesman Nsimbe Kassim, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is still in committee and will not be debated today. Kassim told me that the report from the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee will not come before Parliament today but will probably come up next week. The main business today is more work on the bills relating to the oil industry in Uganda. According to yesterday’s agenda, Parliament must get through two Petroleum Bills, the Accountants Bill, a resolution to encourage a bail out of a steel mill and consideration of a report on the energy sector before debate on the anti-gay bill.

UPDATE: In the category of “I’ll believe it when I see it” is this report from the BBC. In May 2011, MPs said the death penalty had been dropped when in fact it was still in the bill.

UPDATE: This NTV report lends some credibility to the BBC story above. Committee chair Stephen Tashobya is quoted as saying the report is complete and others speaking off camera say that the penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” will now be life in prison. This report indicates that action on the bill will take place next week.

Uganda’s Speaker of Parliament Denies Travel Sanctions over Anti-gay Bill

In an article on the parliament website, Rebecca Kadaga denies that she has been barred from attending the Global Peace Convention over her support for the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. As I noted last night, the State Department denied reports that sanctions have been threatened. It is unclear what committee chair Stephen Tashobya was referring to by a letter he said he received from the United States.

Here is the article from the parliament website:

The Parliament of Uganda has noted with concern the information being disseminated by some media houses and other sources that due to concern for her security, the Right Honorable Speaker Rebecca Kadaga has been barred by the American Embassy, from travelling to the United States to attend the Global Peace Convention 2012. This, it is claimed, is a result of the Rt. Hon. Speaker’s pronouncements during the IPU Conference in Quebec in October 2012, on matters pertaining to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which is due to be debated in Parliament of Uganda.

The Parliament of Uganda would like to formally clarify therefore that the United States Embassy in Uganda has not at any one time formally communicated to the Office of the Speaker or to the Speaker herself preventing her from travelling to the United States of America for the said Convention.

While it is true that the Speaker had been invited to attend the Heads of State Global Peace Convention 2012 which will take place from November 29th to December 1st in Atlanta, Georgia, she declined to attend the meeting due to several commitments at Parliament most important of which was that the Deputy Speaker was scheduled to be out of the country on official business at the time, yet Parliament was in session. It may be necessary to note that constitutionally, it is only the Speaker or her Deputy permitted to chair parliamentary sittings. They can, therefore, not be away at the same time when Parliament is sitting.

The Parliament of Uganda would like to clarify, therefore, that all reports pertaining to the travel ban on the Right Honorable Speaker are fictitious, and have been treated by the Parliament with the contempt that they deserve. The public is advised to treat the news with similar regard.

It should be noted, in conclusion, that the leadership and the Parliament of Uganda enjoy cordial relations with both the United States Embassy in Uganda and the United States Department of State.

The Global Peace Conference is sponsored by the Unification Church.

Uganda TV: United States to Impose Sanctions if Anti-Homosexuality Bill is Approved (UPDATED)

UPDATE: Wade McMullen from the Kennedy Center tweeted me to say that the State Department denies that Obama threatened sanctions.

On this clip, we learn that sanctions may be in store for Uganda if Parliament passes the anti-gay bill.

Committee chair Stephen Tashobya is interviewed in this clip. Tashobya has at various times said the bill would not emerge from his committee. However, he would be a pivotal figure in the passage of the bill since his committee must submit a report for consideration by Parliament. Tashobya discloses on this clip the fact that the US has promised sanctions if the bill passes.

Just last week, Tashobya told me he was unable to comment on the bill. However, now he is on camera commenting on the president’s letter to the Ugandan committee.