I have been out most of the day and so I am just now seeing this letter from Uganda’s President Yowari Museveni to Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga. The letter was sent to me by an activist from Uganda.
I hope the viewer below works for you; otherwise, click the link to read it.
It is not clear what the next move is. Given that the letter is dated December 28, 2013, Museveni would have until January 28 to formally send it back to Parliament. Otherwise, it would become law.
Tag: rebecca kadaga
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’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill Appears on Parliament’s To-Do List
The Anti-Homosexuality Bill is listed on today’s order paper under the heading of “Notice of Business to Follow.”
NOTICE OF BUSINESS TO FOLLOW
- 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 ANTI-HOMOSEXUALITY BILL, 2012
4. THE PUBLIC ORDER MANAGEMENT BILL, 2012
5. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ON THE STATUS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES
6. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ON THE AFRICAN SPACE RESEARCH PROGRAM (ASRP)
7. 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)
8. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE NATIONAL ECONOMY ON THE STATE OF THE ECONOMY
9. PETITION AGAINST THE OFFICIAL RECEIVER OF UGANDA ELECTRICITY BOARD (UEB) AND UEB (IN LIQUIDATION) FOR NON-PAYMENT OF GRATUITY
KAMPALA
21ST NOVEMBER 2012
The bill reached this level of attention back in May, 2011 but time ran out before the bill was debated. There is now plenty of time for this bill to come to the floor prior to the planned December 15 recess.
Uganda’s Speaker of Parliament Wants Anti-Homosexuality Bill Debated Next Week
So says the Monitor.
The Speaker of Parliament has directed the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee to present the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2011 on the floor of Parliament.
The committee chairperson, Mr Stephen Tashobya, passed on Ms Rebecca Kadaga’s directive to committee members yesterday as he summoned them to attend next week’s session in person “to have the Bill concluded”.
In her November 13 letter, the Speaker advised Mr Tashobya to be mindful of what she said was the high demand by the public to address homosexuality.
“I write to reiterate my earlier instruction to your committee to expeditiously handle the review of the report on the Bill. As you are aware, there is high demand by the population to address the escalating problem of promoting and recruiting minors into homosexuality,” the letter reads in part.
“This is therefore to inform you that I shall place the Bill on the Order Paper immediately after conclusion of the Oil Bills,” she wrote. Parliament is concluding consideration of the Petroleum (Exploration, Production and Development) Bill as the House breaks off for Christmas recess on December 15, which suggests that after the Bill is hopefully completed by next Tuesday, MPs can expect to debate and probably pass the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
Mr Tashobya said his committee had “a working document [ready] because we had a lot of responses during the public hearings.” The Bill was presented as a Private Members’ Bill by Ndorwa West MP David Bahati in the 8th Parliament and has since become a subject of international discussion, with a number of Western countries threatening to cut aid to Uganda if it is passed.
The working document is a report left over from the 8th Parliament and makes very few changes in the anti-gay bill. I wrote about the committee report in May, 2011:
A paper designated as the final report of the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee was leaked last Thursday, just ahead of Friday’s final session. I have good reasons to believe that the report did come from the committee although I cannot say for certain that the report would have been presented on the floor of the Parliament had the bill gotten that far. You can read the report, converted to a .pdf, by clicking here.
To help see what a revised bill would have looked like, I compared the original Anti-Homosexuality Bill with the report. This version makes the changes called for in the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee report (Click the link). In this version the sections crossed out were in the original bill and those underlined are the ones suggested by the committee.
Even after the changes, the penalty for private, consensual same-sex intimacy would still be life in jail and the death penalty would remain since it is the penalty provided for aggravated defilement in Uganda. Clauses 4, 7, 8, 14, 16 & 17 were deleted but a new penalty for participating in the marriage of a same-sex couples. Presumably, this would discourage ministers from performing the ceremonies. Even if the bill had been amended in the manner suggested by the committee, the bill would have defined homosexual behavior in a way that criminalized the most modest forms of intimacy with either life in prison or death for HIV positive individuals.
According to the Monitor report, the Speaker wants to have the second reading of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill after the Petroleum Bills are completed. According to today’s agenda, the oil bills were debated in today’s session (click here to read the order paper for today). The listing of business to come does not list the AHB but according to the Monitor, Kadaga is going to put it on the order paper for sometime next week.
Uganda’s Parliament Speaker Resolved to Bring Anti-Gay Bill to a Vote
From the Ugandan Parliament website:
Parliament will soon debate Anti Homosexuality Bill – Speaker
Parliament will soon consider the Anti Homosexuality Bill, the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga, has said.
The Speaker, who was addressing a cross section of religious leaders upon her return from Canada where she attended the 127th Inter Parliamentary Union Assembly, said she would not be intimidated by any western power about her position on homosexuality.
“I will instruct the Chair of the Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to bring the report on the Anti Homosexuality Bill, so that we can consider it,” she said, Monday night.
The Anti Homosexuality Bill, a private Members draft law was moved by Hon. David Bahati during the Eighth Parliament. It seeks to establish a comprehensive legislation to protect the traditional family by prohibiting any form of sexual relations between people of the same sex; and the promotion or recognition of such sexual relations in public institutions as healthy, normal or an acceptable lifestyle, including in the public schools, through or with the support of any government entity in Uganda or any non- governmental organization inside or outside the country.
During the IPU Assembly held in Quebec, Canada, Hon. Kadaga protested assertions by the Canadian Foreign Minister that Uganda was intolerant to homosexuals.
“If homosexuality is a value for the people of Canada, they should not seek to force Uganda to embrace it. We are not a colony or a protectorate of Canada,” she said while in Canada.
Upon her return, the Speaker said that delegates from several other countries were happy with her statement but were afraid to speak out.
“I did not realize I was speaking for the entire world; Africa, the Arab world, Latin America and western countries; delegates told me ‘you were speaking for all of us.’ They had no courage to respond to (the Canadian Foreign Minister),” she said.
She added, “I will not accept to be intimidated or directed by any government in the world. If the price of aid is accepting homosexuality, we can reject the aid.”
The welcome ceremony included Parliament Commissioners, MPs, the former Minister of Ethics, Dr. James Nsaba Buturo, advocates against homosexuality and several students, who carried placards in support of the Speaker’s position and urging Parliament to urgently approve the Anti Homosexuality Bill.
Committee chair Tashobya was quoted in a newspaper article this week that he would have it to the floor before Christmas. Let’s remember that the order paper of Parliament will reflect the second reading of the bill. At that time a committee report will be heard and debate occur. It is highly likely that the third reading will happen that same day. If so, the bill could become law rapidly once introduced to the floor. The President can send it back to Parliament with suggestions but according to current practice and the Constitution, he cannot stop the bill from becoming law.
Uganda’s Anti-Gay Bill: This does not look good
If indeed the speaker of the Parliament wants to bring the bill forward and the committee involved cooperates, backroom intervention from the President will be needed to stop it.
Last time I spoke to Stephen Tashobya (the parliamentary committee chair involved), he said he had better things to do than to bring the bill forward. We shall see how much clout the speaker really has in this situation.
No Date Set for Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Yesterday, I reported that the Parliament of Uganda voted to return unfinished bills from the Eighth Session to business in the current session. One of those bills specifically referenced was the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
This morning I spoke with Parliament Spokeswoman, Helen Kawesa, who told me that no date had been set for debate on the anti-gay measure. “The Business Committee will meet to decide what bills are considered. Then they will be listed on the daily Order Paper,” Kawesa explained. The Business Committee is chaired by Speaker of the House Rebecca Kadaga and made up of all other committee chairs. Currently, no date has been set for this committee to consider a schedule for the bills returned from the Eighth Parliament.
I also spoke briefly to Stephen Tashobya, chair of the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee. His committee prepared a report on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in May and recommended passage with some minor changes. He had no comment on the status of the anti-gay bill since he has been traveling.
According to Kawesa, the Business committee could recommend that the anti-gay bill go back to committee or it could recommend that the former committee report become the basis for debate in the Parliament. Apparently, the return of the bill to the floor is not automatic. The Speaker has some ability to delay it or expedite it. The decision of the Business committee may signal how quickly the bill will move.
The committee report from Tashobya’s committee left the severe aspects of the bill intact, including the death penalty and life in prison (see an analysis here).
Fate of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill is in doubt
How many times have I written a headline like that?
Reports are coming from Kampala that the bill has been postponed indefinitely. From Behind the Mask:
The Ugandan parliament’s debate on the issue of whether or not to re-introduce the internationally condemned Anti-Homosexuality Bill was on Wednesday September 7 postponed indefinitely.
According to sources in the House Business Committee, the Parliamentary body that was supposed to have met in Kampala on Wednesday the meeting had to be put off because the Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga is out of the country.
Another report from African Activist declared:
Today Uganda’s Parliament Business Committee discussed topics to be brought before the Parliament in the next quarter. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 was not included. According to Frank Mugisha, Executive Director at Sexual Minorities Uganda, “information is that the bill can not be debated in a 2nd reading it has to be reintroduced and has to go through all the initial stages.”
There are two issues being discussed here. One relates to the current status of the bill – will it be on the Plenaries agenda? Another issue relates to the method necessary to get the bill to the Parliament for a vote.
Mugisha seems to be saying that David Bahati will have to ask permission of Parliament to re-introduce his bill. The competing theory is that his bill can be discussed by Parliament at the point where the bill was stalled in the last Parliamentary session.
I cannot confirm which of these scenarios is true at this time.
If Bahati must get permission again from Parliament to reintroduce the bill from scratch, then the earlier reports from MP Otto Odonga were either incorrect or the plan changed. Earlier, Odonga told me that Speaker Rebecca Kadaga planned to allow several bills to be considered without going through all new procedures.
If the reports of a postponement are accurate then the bill would remain with Parliament and could be brought back at any time. If the bill must be reintroduced then there can be no action until Bahati asks leave of Parliament to table it. At that point, the process would start again.
It seems clear that the bill has generated opponents and supporters within the Parliament which is playing out in a legislative battle.