Category: uganda

Uganda round up: Ssempa summoned to court, Rolling Stone hearing slated for Dec. 31

According the Daily Monitor, Martin Ssempa and a group of cohorts have been summoned to court over charges they conspired to injure the reputation of Robert Kayanja. According to authorities, the bunch paid people off to say Kayanja engaged in homosexual behavior.  According to the Monitor:

The Buganda Road Court yesterday summoned pastors Solomon Male, Michael KyazzeMartin Ssempa and Robert Kayiira to appear in court on January 4 to answer charges of conspiracy to injure Pastor Robert Kayanja’s reputation. Also summoned is David Mukalazi, a musician, and Anita Kyomuhendo, a State House employee.

The summonses followed a decision by the Directorate of Public Prosecutions to sanction charges of conspiracy to injure Pastor Kayanja’s reputation. Pastor Male of Arise for Christ Ministry was last week briefly detained over the allegation. They are accused of mobilising youths to accuse Pastor Kayanja of sodomising them.

Pastor Ssempa is accused of hiring Robson Matovu to blackmail Pastor Kayanja. It is alleged that Matovu, together with the alleged victims of sodomy, were medically examined but no evidence of anal penetration was found.

Pastor Male is accused of giving Matovu a signed affidavit implicating Pastor Kayanja, while Mukisa was reportedly promised necessities to testify against Pastor Kayanja. Pastors Kazze and Kayiira of Omega Healing Centre also face similar charges before the Grade 11 Magistrate’s Court.

I have asked for comment from Rev. Ssempa but he has not replied. We have some readers who attend Rev. Ssempa’s church. Perhaps they could let us know how this is being received there.

Regarding the Rolling Stone trial, the court again moved the hearing to Dec. 31.

UN restores reference to sexual orientation in violence policy – UPDATED

UPDATE: Paul Canning has this story from all angles. He has the vote changes listed and notes that 47 countries switched votes from the last time this issue came up.

His summary demonstrates the striking changes in votes from the first time around when sexual orientation was removed as a basis for condemning executions.

This means that 23 nations changed their vote to yes, 15 didn’t vote no and nine more abstained – 47 in total went in a positive direction. This is a quarter of the UN membership.

  • One third of African countries changed their vote positively, including Rwanda and Angola voting yes. 
  • Almost the whole of the Caribbean changed their vote positively, including Jamaica.

In the debate at the UN the most moving contribution was from the Rwandan delegate who said that a group does not need to be “legally defined” to be targeted for massacres and referenced his countries experience. “We can’t continue to hide our heads in the sand” he said.”These people have a right to life.”

“These people have a right to life,” said the Rwandan delegate. Will this sentiment spread to neighboring nations, including Uganda? We shall see…

This just in from Reuters…

The United States succeeded on Tuesday in getting the United Nations to restore a reference to killings due to sexual orientation that had been deleted from a resolution condemning unjustified executions.

Western delegations were disappointed last month when the U.N. General Assembly’s human rights committee approved an Arab and African proposal to cut the reference to slayings due to sexual orientation from a resolution on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions.

The committee’s move also had outraged human rights activists and groups that lobby for gay rights. Philippe Bolopion of Human Rights Watch (HRW) said at the time that it was a “step backwards” and “extremely disappointing.”

The 192-nation General Assembly approved a U.S. amendment to the resolution that restored the reference to sexual orientation with 93 votes in favor, 55 against and 27 abstentions. The amended resolution was then adopted with 122 yes votes, none against and 59 abstentions.

The main opposition to the U.S. amendment came from Muslim and African nations, which had led the push to delete the reference to sexual preference from the resolution last month.

NPR on Uganda

This morning Barbara Bradley Hagerty has a Morning Edition spot on Uganda reminding us that the Rolling Stone case may be decided this week.

In October, a tabloid called Rolling Stone — no relation to the American magazine — published an article headlined “100 Pictures of Uganda’s Top Homos Leak.” The article listed names, addresses and hangouts of gay men and lesbians.

Frank Mugisha saw his photo. Then he noticed the subhead: “Hang them.”

“I was shaken up. I was freaked out. I was scared,” says Mugisha, who heads up the group Sexual Minorities Uganda. “I’m like, hang them? What is the general Ugandan community going to do to us if the media is calling for us to be hanged?”

On Tuesday, a judge in Uganda is expected to decide whether Rolling Stone may continue to publish the names of gay men and lesbians. Gay activists say that outing them puts them in danger. For example, a couple of days after his name and photo were printed, Mugisha received a text message from a university student.

“It said, ‘We don’t like homosexuals in Uganda and you guys should be executed. We know where you live, we know who you hang out with, we know who your friends are and we shall come and deal with you as the youth of Uganda.'”

This text sounds very much like the promise of the Martin Ssempa colleague and Islamic cleric Multah Bukenya who promised youth squads to round up homosexuals.

The article also provides some of the interview Bahati gave to NPR when he was DC for the government management conference two weeks ago. As I noted on Friday, the Parliament is recessed until February. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill will likely be acted on at that time.

Uganda: Committee Chair describes Anti-Homosexuality Bill timetable

This morning I spoke with Stephen Tashobya, the chair of the Ugandan Parliament’s Legal and Affairs committee. This committee has jurisdiction over the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. I asked Hon. Tashobya if he had any current plan for action on the AHB. He told me that the Parliament was currently preoccupied with the upcoming Christmas break and then the elections. About the AHB, he said, “So I suppose I can say it will come up after elections which is the 18th of February.”

He said he did not promise that the bill would be next in line, but said

Ideally, what we are trying to do is to ensure that we clear all the bills that are before the committee before the end of this Parliament in May. I am not in a position to say we are going to handle it in this time framework, but we are trying to get out all of the bills by the end of May, including that one [the AHB].

Mr. Tashobya confirmed that if the bill is not considered during this Parliament, then a new bill would need to be tabled in the next one. He then outlined the procedure he envisioned for the bill.

What I can say is that there is special interest in that bill, both for and against and we are mindful of the interest in that bill. We are looking first of all in the context of the Parliament and the public interest, we are trying to see how we can handle it. We shall have public hearings, where all come and give their views and finally the committee report will take into account those views we are receiving from the public.

Mr. Tashobya said that the committee report would be presented then to the Parliament as a whole and discussed prior to a second and third reading. Often the required second and third reading occurs on the same day, followed by the vote, also on that same day. If passed, the bill is sent on to President Museveni. At that point, Museveni could do nothing and allow the bill to become law or he could send it back to Parliament if there were elements he did not like. However, according to Mr. Tashobya, that would be “unusual” saying, “In the life of this Parliament, he has not sent a bill back.”

For opponents of the AHB, it appears that the public opportunity to speak out will be in a relatively short window in the public hearings convened by the Legal and Parliamentary Committee sometime between late February and early May.