uganda – Page 17 – Warren Throckmorton

Uganda to ban NGOs over gay rights

KAMPALA (Reuters) – Uganda said on Wednesday it was banning 38 non-governmental organisations it accuses of promoting homosexuality and recruiting children.

Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda, along with more than 30 other countries in Africa, and activists say few Africans are openly gay, fearing imprisonment, violence and losing their jobs.

Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo told Reuters the organisations being targeted were receiving support from abroad for Uganda’s homosexuals and accused gays and lesbians of “recruiting” young children in the country into homosexuality.

More coverage of police crackdown on gay rights meeting; anti-gay bill may be considered this session

Freedom of association, freedom of speech; these are precious freedoms that Ugandan gays do not have. And if David Bahati gets his way, very soon, Ugandan LGBT people may not have freedom to live.

Note Bahati at the end of the video. He says Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee Chair Stephen Tashobya has assured him that the bill will be acted on in the next session.

Folks, it looks like it is time to wake up again.

Police break up LGBT conference in Uganda

Uganda’s police with nothing better to do…

KAMPALA — Ugandan police on Monday raided a gay rights workshop in Kampala and questioned activists attending the gathering, rights campaigners said.

East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, the organisation behind the workshop, said that police interrupted the meeting and began questioning participants at the event, including activists from Canada, Kenya and Rwanda.

The police forced their way into some of the activists’ hotel rooms, the group said in a statement.

The training workshop was intended to bolster the local gay community’s abilities to report rights abuses, the statement said.

Activists condemned the police action and said it represented a growing trend.

From NTV Uganda:

More calls from Uganda’s clergy to bring back anti-gay bill

This thing is never far from the surface.

Top religious leaders from across the country have asked Parliament to speed-up the process of enacting the Anti-Homosexuality law to prevent what they called “an attack on the Bible and the institution of marriage”.

I don’t think the committee chair in charge of the bill (Stephen Tashobya) wants to deal with the bill. Several months ago, he told me his committee has much more important business. However, he told me something similar during the last Parliament when the bill languished until the last month and then began to move.

Uganda’s clergy calls on Parliament to pass the Anti-Homosexuality Bill

I have written a headline like that several times since 2009. However, in 2012, the calls still come:

In a statement, the bishops called for the review of the Constitution to reduce the excessive powers enjoyed by the President.

Orombi said there is need to enact a law to protect the sitting President from being bombarded by the people asking him to address issues that can be solved by the relevant institutions.

“The President cannot do everything. We want the relevant government institutions to be allowed to do their work instead of everyone asking the President to solve their problems,” he added.

The religious leaders called on Parliament to expedite the passing of the Anti-homosexuality Bill into law to combat same-sex marriages which threats the moral fabric of the Ugandan society.

They also urged government to do everything in its power to get to the bottom of the causes of nodding disease, with the view of wiping it out to save the people in the north where it has so far killed over 200 children since 2009 when it broke out.

The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga in a speech read for by Bahati said the Church should continue advising the political leaders objectively.

I suspect David Bahati asked for and received a call from Orombi to tout his bill. This statement is a sign that the clergy and Bahati have not given up on it.