Category Archives: Uganda – Politics

President Yoweri Museveni: please hire me! 3

Gay - Political, Uganda - Politics • Tags: , , ,

Yoweri Museveni needs a special adviser on homosexuality: ME!

Yoweri Museveni needs a special adviser on [homo]sexuality: me!!!

I have finally found the job I would like to do in Uganda.

Specifically, I want to be hired by Uganda’s president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, as his spokesperson on homosexual affairs.

Okay, perhaps that would be too narrow a remit. Can he maybe hire me as his special adviser on matters relating to sex and sexuality? If you bear with me, you will see why this is such an excellent idea.

Mr. President:

I am ready to be your public relations manager, your consultant, your special adviser, your go-to person whenever  human rights activists  from the USA or wherever come to nag  when you are resting at your country home in Rwakitura, or when you wish to  clip the ears of a stubborn member of Parliament or wayward Speaker of the House.

What’s brought this on?

Simple. Who better to hire than a gay man whose fabled objectivity keeps friends and foes on their toes in trepidation that he might call them out?

Secondly, Mr. President, you need simple lessons in sexual public relations. Of course you are right when you argue that [in a manner of speaking] if you were to kiss your wife in public you would lose an election. That would be a very Ugandan reaction.

Mr. President, in me you are preaching to the converted on the issue of exhibitionism. Yours truly has lived on four continents and attended more gay pride parades than some people have had hot dinners. But I have nonetheless remained unimpressed by public displays of affection, preferring instead the Ugandan demure, roundabout, way.

Yes, this means that I frown on gay pride parades, hanging by the chandeliers or engaging in lesbian cat fights in public bars, men having backseat sex in public car parks, “cottaging” (having sex in public toilets) and any form of militancy that seeks to push the sexual envelope with lurid, simulated, sexual displays. That is ‘cut and paste’ stuff’ that might look good in San Francisco’s Castro District. In Uganda, it should be taken home and kept there.

Western people exhibit sexual acts in public which we don’t do here,” … Africans do even punish heterosexuals who [publicly] expose their sexual acts.” (Museveni)

Yes, Mr. President, we should keep our gay sexual peccadilloes in our gay bars (even if we don’t seem to have any), at our private gatherings, in our bedrooms. But it would help if you would say this not only when you are addressing American pressure groups, but Ugandans too. Activists must indeed respect the confidentiality of sex in our traditions and culture, but so should Martin Ssempa and his ilk who fail to respect our traditional expectation of sexual confidentiality when they try to incite the masses with pornographic shows on the pulpit.

We just need to make sure that our repressed attitudes towards sex are not used as an excuse to deny gay Ugandans equal access to the medical care they need – as is now the case.

As for your perennial refrain of there being  “… no discrimination, no killings, no marginalization, no luring of young people using money into homosexual acts,” you are right. Well, almost totally right.

Ready to join Special Adviser (Special Duties), Nasser Sebaggala

I am ready to join Special Adviser (Special Duties), Nasser Sebaggala plus 100+ others

The problem is that you say there is no discrimination and then stay deafeningly silent when your Minister of Ethics barges like a bull in a China stores into gay and lesbian gatherings in hotels in Entebbe and elsewhere . How can that be looked at as anything other than discriminatory when it is fairly plain that the activists have a right to assemble just like any other Ugandan?

Also, why is there such a time lag between the silly, ignorant pronouncements from your ministers and members of Parliament that young people are being recruited into homosexuality and your repudiation of these foolish claims? Hire me to monitor and alert you to such paranoia so that it is addressed by [what would be] our office promptly.

Please, Mr. President … hire me. You can reach me on supakoja@yahoo.com. I am available for discussions (interviews if you like but I am really so good you would be missing a critical opportunity not to jump at my offer)  any time, at your convenience of course. I recognize that there is a time element to this so I hope you will respond to my excellent idea quickly, certainly before the next delegation of human rights activists from the USA, Britain or Canada come calling which we all know they will.

I not only promise to help you clean up Uganda’s battered reputation as the worst place in the world to be gay; an utterly outrageous claim when viewed against places such as the United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, Iran, rural Georgia and North Dakota, (USA), I will also help you figure out ways of taking the  politics of mendacity, exaggeration, obfuscation, double speak, opportunism and hysteria out of the debate.

I agree that you have fundamentally changed your position and are not an enemy of the gay community despite what some on our side rashly claim. But you could surely do with a consultant to fine-tune your ‘gay’ message and infuse it with much needed consistency.

Hire me.

Please.

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Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga responds to Father Musaala 14

Religion, Social Commentary, Uganda - Politics • Tags: , , , ,

Here is the Archbishop of Kampala’s press release. It’s not clear whether this was before or after Father Musaala was suspended from conducting his priestly duties ‘pending investigations.’

************************************

Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga

Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga

PRESS RELEASE

Dear people of God

“I deeply think of the immense suffering caused by the article produced in the media authored by Fr. Anthony Musaala, that seems to be casting a dark shadow of suspicion” over all priests.

Above all, the Church takes seriously the allegations in this article. On behalf of my fellow Catholic Bishops in Uganda I wish to assure the public that as leaders of the Catholic Church in Uganda; we are committed to the protection of the minors and rights of everyone. Investigations about these allegations are to begin immediately with of course cases that are proved.

It should however, be clear to everyone that the value of the choice of priestly celibacy according to the Catholic tradition still stands, and the need for solid human and Christian formation is underlined, both for seminarians and for those already ordained.
The Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law states the stand of the Catholic Church on celibacy in Canon 277, which mandates clerical celibacy that: “Clerics are obliged to observe perfect and perpetual continence for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven and therefore are obliged to observe celibacy, which is a special gift of God, by which sacred ministers can adhere more easily to Christ with an undivided heart and can more freely dedicate themselves to the services of God and mankind.”

This Church law is embraced willingly as prescribed by Can.1037 which states that: “A candidate for the permanent diaconate who is not married, and likewise a candidate for the priesthood, is not to be admitted to the order of diaconate unless he has, in the prescribed rite, publically before God and the Church undertaken the obligation of celibacy, or unless he has taken perpetual vows in a religious institute”. This means therefore that no one is forced to embrace this discipline before or at ordination.

Everyone should once again remember that until Christ came along (Mt 19:12), and then Paul (1 Cor. 7:32-35), the only state of life known was marriage but when Christ came, He made it clear that some people would remain celibate (“eunuchs”) for the sake of the Kingdom of God (Mt 19:12). St. Paul further recommended it for those who would be dedicated to serving God in this world (1 Cor. 7:7, 17, 32-35), for the salvation of souls and it is totally a freedom of choice as the above biblical quotations suggest.
If one fails to comply with this discipline, he does it on his own and not on behalf of the Church. Consequently personal failure in this regard is not an offence sanctioned by the Church. However we as Bishops deeply regret such failures and seek forgiveness from those who have been victims.
I indeed applaud all the many religious men and women who have remained faithful to this promise and there is nothing we can offer but our prayers for them.

It is very unfortunate that the author of the published document stands to call for suspension of this discipline through his proposed forum that has no Church legitimacy and yet the Church’s legislation and practice is clear on this point. None-the-less we are going to investigate into the allegations in the article with people concerned together with certainty of the author of this document.

As per now, after the acceptance of Fr. Musaala that he authored this document, the law prescribed by the Church in can. 1369 takes its course. This law states that: “A person is to be punished with a just penalty, who, at a public event or assembly, or in a published writing, or by otherwise using the means of social communication, utters blasphemy, or gravely harms public morals, or rails at or excites hatred of or contempt for religion or the Church.”

This means therefore that Fr. Musaala because of the publication of his article in the public media which damages good morals of Catholic believers and further expresses a wrong teaching against the Catholic Church’s teaching and that this stirs up hatred and contempt against the Church, he incurs a Ferendae sententiae penalty as prescribed by Can.1314. This means that Father Anthony Musaala is suspended from celebrating sacraments and sacramentals, from the powers of governance in accordance to the law of the Church Can.1335 and1336§1n.1, 2and3 as investigations are being carried on.

Once more I feel sorry of the inconveniences caused by this article and let us entrust the whole matter to our Lord the most chaste, for the conversion of hearts to do good.

Yours Sincerely in Christ,

+Cyprian K. Lwanga
ARCHBISHOP OF KAMPALA

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The Bahati Anti Homosexuality Bill: The Stage Is Set 4

Gay - Political, Uganda - Politics • Tags: , , , , , ,

We are finally approaching the denouement to the saga that the Bahati Anti Homosexuality Bill (AHB) has been since 2009. The players are lined up and we must finally see the end to this drama.

The Major Players around Uganda's AHB

The Major Players around Uganda’s AHB

Here is an attempt to summarize what is at stake:

President Yoweri Museveni:

In 2010, following pressure from Hillary Clinton and other Western diplomats, Museveni put his authority on the line and ordered his

Doesn't want the bill: Yoweri Museveni

Doesn’t want the bill: Yoweri Museveni

National Resistance Movement (NRM) members of Parliament (MPs) to drop the bill because it was a matter of ‘foreign policy‘ that was not theirs to resolve. The MPs resentfully capitulated and the bill failed to get out of committee. It lay comatose for nearly three years until Canada’s John Baird resuscitated it with his withering attack on Rebecca Kadaga last October. Museveni must be  irritated that he has to deal with this bill again, especially with the attendant implications for his authority and foreign policy (read foreign Aid) if it is debated and passed.

Museveni has no interest in the AHB, doesn’t want it debated at all, but will now work more quietly to kill it because he can’t employ the public, paternalistic, tactics he used in 2010.

The Parliament of Uganda:

Uganda’s Parliament is overwhelmingly NRM. This 9th Parliament has proved to be more prone to straining at the leash against the executive,  because it has more young(er) MPs who are impatient to assert their authority as Parliamentarians. The problem for them is that too many NRM MPs are still beholden to the president for their seats (a lot of voters really vote NRM because of Museveni, rather than the MP) so they haven’t got enough guts to stand their ground when the president clips them behind the ear, passes them a few sweeteners or threatens them with political annihilation should they not fall into line.  You sense that more of them are increasingly ready to try and use the AHB to give Museveni a bloody nose and so you will see them attempt to debate and pass it.

Rebecca Kadaga

Her authority on the line: Rebecca Kadaga

Her authority on the line: Rebecca Kadaga

Kadaga nailed her colors to the AHB in an ill-advised attempt to bolster her presidential ambitions. At a stroke, she compromised her office which is supposed to be neutral and she also put herself directly in the cross-hairs of President Museveni who cannot have taken too kindly to her thinly veiled shot across the bows at his administration.

He stared her down when she led her Parliamentary troops up the hill because of the death in unclear circumstances of a young Parliamentarian, Selina Nebanda. Museveni insisted that there was no need to recall Parliament over that controversy and, despite her earlier blustering that Parliament would be recalled, Kadaga led her troops back down.

Already wounded by the skirmish with Yoweri Museveni over Selina Nebanda’s death, Kadaga’s authority will be damaged irreparably if the AHB  never makes it to the floor of Parliament. She will thus do whatever she can to at least have the bill debated on the floor. She must be looking for every avenue to save herself further political humiliation, having promised and failed to deliver the AHB as a 2012 Christmas present.

The Evangelical/right  vs the Liberal/Left foreign legion:

It is true that the bill was conceived with the support of American evangelicals such as Scott Lively. But they hadn’t reckoned with the

Private Courts Inc justifies their actions which led to the closure of Victoria University

Private Courts Inc justifies their actions which put 200 Ugandan students and their lecturers out on the streets

fierce backlash from Liberal/Left leaning organizations who took up the mantle and have, since the AHB was introduced in 2009, done whatever they can to guide the message as well as the tactics against their right-wing foes in America and the government authorities in Uganda.

To these two enemies, the AHB is but a mere Trojan Horse for their left/right  ideological battle for hearts and minds. Uganda is but one of the battlefields on which they will fight to the death. Others are Cameroon, Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana and so on. The American evangelicals started the battle in Uganda but have since lost ground due to their domestic flock getting cold feet at the idea that they could be responsible for the judicial killing of citizens in foreign places. They also don’t have the stomach to withstand the ferocity of the liberals’ response especially given that the American political climate has clearly turned against right-wing extremism as shown by Barack Obama’s resounding trouncing of the Republicans in successive elections.

The East African has an example of the left’s unrepentantly agenda-driven, personal, ruthless, egotistic, condescending, colonial, take-no-prisoners attitude that they bring to the internecine ideological battle. In that instance, one individual from a company calling itself Private Courts Inc.  pressured Victoria University to close, without bothering to consult the LGBTI community in Uganda, thereby putting the future of 200 students and their lecturers s in jeopardy, and creating the wrong impression that the LGBTI community in Uganda didn’t care what happened to anyone else as long as their agenda was put on a pedestal.

In fact the LGBTI in Uganda, some of whom have friends at the university, found out who the prime mover had been when The East African’s article was published, weeks after the fact. The Private Courts Inc. personnel who wrote the haranguing e-mail to Victoria University last visited Uganda in 2011 but she doesn’t hesitate to lecture anyone and everyone she doesn’t agree with as though she is the Alpha and Omega of the poor, helpless, downtrodden black gay boys and girls in Uganda that she must save from a fireball of hate and bigotry. She clings to a patronizing and racist attitude she would never use had she been dealing with any African-American community in the United States. But, hey, she is a self-appointed white savior from San Francisco who knows better than all the backward black African people in a “tiny country” so her superiority makes her best suited to decide what is good for them.

It is clearly not only the evangelicals using the AHB for their own egoistic reasons.

Uganda’s LGBTI Community:

Just a pawn in the ideological war: David Bahati

Just a pawn in the ideological war: David Bahati

Last, and least, is the LGBTI community in Uganda. Even though they are the people who will bear the brunt of the effects of the AHB, events  have evolved over the last 4 years in such a way as to make the gay community but a parenthesis in the various power and ideological battles the bill has spawned.

The fact that the West is funding all the LGBTI activities in Uganda makes the people on the ground but mere marionettes. Yes, that means that Martin Ssempa and David Bahati are as much a tool of the American evangelicals as the Ugandan LGBTI community are of the left/liberal camps in the West.

It is a noble fight that the LGBTI activists are fighting in Uganda but it is also, sadly, true that very little of what is going on in Uganda’ corridors of power, in San Francisco’s Private Courts Inc.  or at Scott Lively’s Abiding Truth Ministries is driven by the realities of the gay population on the ground who are but mere pawns in much bigger, and sometimes tangential,  political games.

The activists must, of course, keep lobbying Parliament (I think the message and tone need to be adjusted but that is another discussion) and keep engaging with anyone they can on the AHB. The alternative would be to give up; infinitely worse given how much they have already put into the fight.

When all is said and done, the Anti Homosexuality Bill’s fate can only be decided once and for all if A) President Museveni finds a way of getting it thrown out of Parliament for good, B) Uganda’s Parliament comes to its senses and rejects it out on their own volition or  C) it is debated and passed and it goes to court for a final, legal, ruling on its constitutionality.

If Parliament stands its ground, Yoweri Museveni’s options are limited. In that happenstance, the solution to this protracted battle will be for Parliament to pass the bill, and the courts take it up, thereby finally taking the opportunistic politics out of play.

 

UPDATE/CORRECTION: After I posted this, it has been brought to my attention that the Private Courts person, Melanie Nathan, who wrote the e-mail to Victoria University has actually never been to Uganda.

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Mike Mukula delivers a clanger! 7

Gay - Political, Uganda - Politics • Tags: , , ,

2016 Presidential Aspirant, Mike Mukula, is a very interesting man.

Accused of having pilfered Global Alliance for Vaccines (GAVI) funds while he was state minister for health, Mike Mukula wrote a check for 240m/= ($100,000) as recompense. This, despite having initially denied anything to do with the theft of GAVI funds. So, it should perhaps be assumed that, even if he was innocent, Mukula was struck by a bolt of kindness and he decided to write GAVI a $100,000 check. Believe me, you won’t find many Ugandans who are that generous, and especially not ones who have held high office as Mukula has done.

Forever dapper: Mike Mukula

Forever dapper: Mike Mukula

It must thus be with the same magnanimity that Mukula decided to wade into the homosexuality debate. Check him out here telling the youth to shun homosexual activity because it constitutes an adoption of a foreign culture.

Odd as it might sound, I agree with Mukula. I, a Ugandan gay man of so many years (well, I have never really been anything else), also don’t want Ugandan youth to take up homosexual practices. How can that be good for them when they still have their education to complete on top of all the other challenges they face in an increasingly ruthless world?

It is when Mukula talks about Ugandan (African?) culture and homosexuality as mutually exclusive that I get a little lost. Can a man who is that smart, intellectually and sartorially, really be serious that homosexuality is alien to Uganda? Mike Mukula surely knows about gay chiefs and kings in Uganda’s past. He also cannot be oblivious to gay government officials and ex-officials, who dabble in gay sex or have dabbled in gay sex in their past, walking Uganda’s streets today. If I know about them, the very well-connected Mukula must know them, too.

So, Mukula is either being deliberately obtuse or he, too, has fallen prey to the Rebecca Kadaga syndrome; that of opening his mouth without thinking through the long-term implications of his words.

Of course he is right to caution the youth against homosexual activity – they have the rest of their lives after they reach the age of maturity to explore that.

But for an educated man of his ilk to think that homosexuality is somehow a sign of a foreign culture?

I don’t get that, Mike, I really don’t.

Which brings me to the question that keeps me awake at night; why don’t these politicians simply shut up about matters of sexuality if all they do when they open their traps is embarrass themselves with ignorant, if not hypocritical, statements?

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Ugandan politician rubbishes the Bahati [Nazi] Bill 3

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Not all Uganda’s politicians are blinkered, and here is one who makes the case for the Bahati [Nazi] anti-gay bill to be thrown out of Parliament in its entirety. I don’t think you will see a more erudite and considered case for permanently getting rid of this bill from a Ugandan politician:

Money quote: from Morris Ogenga-Latigo:

The truth is that homosexuality is a social phenomenon that hinges on both a person’s genetic constitution and the social environment to which one is exposed, and is as old as humanity. Contrary to the lies peddled by defenders of the bill, homosexually-oriented people have always been part of our African society.

In my Acholi community, they were never outrightly rejected but were instead quietly helped to cope. Even the story of Kabaka Mwanga and his martyrdom of Christians has a homosexuality twist to it. It must also be made clear that homosexuality is completely different from sexual abuse by perverted and mentally deranged men who sexually molest babies, lure and sexually abuse young girls and boys (the Mubiru way), rape fellow men, or even practise bestiality.

Rather than the compassion, love and care in normal same sex relationships, theirs is abomination and heartache that no culture on earth tolerates. Secondly, the bill as it is ? “Anti-homosexuality Bill” ? is no more than a piece of hate legislation.

We now wait with bated breath for Uganda’s other political leaders to respond to this bill. It will be the ultimate dereliction of responsibility for leaders such as Beti Kamya, Mugisha Muntu, Janet Museveni, Beti Nambooze, Semujju Nganda, Ken Lukyamuzi, Olara Otunnu etc. to let this bill pass (or not) without their views on it being put on record. If it is a good bill for the country, let’s hear their counter arguments to Ogenga Latigo. If not, let’s hear their support for him.

The remaining alternative is for them to maintain their silence – not a criminal offense but a sign of moral cowardice surely.

Over to you honorable members of Uganda’s ruling elite.

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Rebecca Kadaga trapped between a rock and hard place! 7

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Speaker of the House: Rebecca Kadaga

Not a lot of people know or realize it just yet but Uganda’s Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga is in political trouble.

Needled by a meddlesome do-gooder, Canada’s John Baird, over the death of a gay activist in 2011, Kadaga lashed out at him, shrilly lecturing him that Uganda is not a Canadian colony or protectorate. That went down extremely well in Uganda and, in hindsight, John Baird likely regrets the ill-considered way he confronted Kadaga.

It would have been alright if that had been the end of the matter.

Upon her return to Uganda, however, events spiraled out of Kadaga’s control when, upon landing at Entebbe Airport, she found the rabidly homophobic David Bahati, Martin Ssempa and James Elspeth Nsaba Buturo waiting to greet her as though she were a Ugandan Joan of Arc. It all went to her head and she forgot that as a Parliamentary Speaker she cannot be seen to be taking sides on political issues. She pompously announced that she would make sure that the anti-gay bill passed, the country wanted it, and so on and so forth. With every high-minded pronouncement, Kadaga was digging herself into a deeper hole. Now she is in a mess she likely wouldn’t be in if she hadn’t shot her mouth off like a Kalashnikov.

How so?

Kadaga really does want to be president of Uganda. If you doubt this, check out this telling New Vision interview she gave recently on the subject. Her reticence, some might argue ‘downright refusal’ to rule herself out of the presidential running, speaks huge volumes.

But the elections are still 4 years away and sane minds are justifiably asking themselves if it was/is wise for Kadaga to reveal her political cards so soon.

Country First … about time, too, after 26 years!

Remember that Kadaga has been at loggerheads with the Prime Minister, Amama Mbabazi, who is the president’s right hand man mostly over what she sees as their mal-administration and scant attention to the countriy’s most pressing priorities such as health, education and infrastructural development. In effect, she has been at odds with the president himself and, indeed, the president has had to intervene more than twice to separate the two when the internecine fighting spilled over into the press.

We all know that Kadaga thinks her government isn’t putting the ‘country first’ as evidenced by the telling caption she has on her Facebook page. That maxim strikes a chord with most Ugandans who are fed up with the wanton thieving, kleptocratic, selfish, bombastic but hollow leadership that characterizes every facet of Museveni’s 26-year-old government. So, Kadaga is on safe ground when she calls for the country to be put first …

At last, here is a politician from the ruling party calling out her own government albeit in veiled tones.

But Mbabazi and Museveni are not going to go away simply by Kadaga craftily using Facebook captions to dig at their incompetence and impunity. They have been around long enough to know that elections are not won 4 years in advance and so they can afford to wait for Kadaga to make mistakes.

She seems to have made one with the Bahati bill because whether it passes or not, Kadaga cannot come out the other side smelling of roses.

If the Bahati Bill doesn’t pass by Christmas, she will look foolish after her near-hysterical hullabaloo about it and the bizarre bed fellows she allowed her office to be associated with in the name of passing it. Right now, everyone is looking at the calendar, waiting to see if Kadaga can deliver the Christmas gift she promised Martin Ssempa, the convicted felon, and his motley crew of conniving pastors.

If the bill passes by Christmas, then Kadaga has to live by her claim that Uganda can do without foreign aid if the donors follow through with their pledge to withdraw their financial support to the country. Remember that the gay lobby is now the most powerful single minority entity in Uganda and, rightly or wrongly, has forced Museveni to his knees several times. So, when donors threaten to plug the faucets on account of the Bahati [Nazi] bill, it is no idle threat to Museveni.

Kadaga wrong on this, too: Donor money is critical to Uganda

Already, even before the bill has been debated on the floor of Parliament, the headlines are awash with the dire consequences for Uganda’s economy that the suspension of donor funds due to the massive theft of over $60m from the Office of the Prime Minister might wreak. Now, imagine if even more donors follow through and withdraw aid money on account of a morality bill designed to target about 500,000 of the country’s gay population. Kadaga will have to explain how that is in the interest of the 33,500,000 Ugandans the cuts to their aid will hit.

Ugandan newspaper headlines: Withdrawal of donor money will hurt Uganda – badly

There is also another, more sensitive, reason why Kadaga will eventually lose political capital if the bill passes. Already in her 50s, she is not married, and has no biological children. Uganda’s female population already outnumbers men and most of them are mothers of course. Even if it might seem attractive at this point, very few Ugandan mothers will look kindly at a female politician, who has never had a child of her own, passing legislation that might end up getting their children killed or jailed. In Luganda we have a saying that aptly describes the situation: ensi egula mirambo; ngowuwo si gwebasse (it is easy to be indifferent towards death – if no one you know is being killed). Mothers will bay for Kadaga’s ice-cold blood if, as should surely be the case, their gay children are rounded up and killed or jailed because of nothing other than their being gay.

Finally, Kadaga’s throwaway claim that the country wants the Bahati Bill is based on a fanciful premise and, oddly for a politician, an impolitic reading of the situation on the ground. Martin Ssempa, David Bahati, James Nsaba Buturo and their ilk want the bill – mostly because they stand to make hundreds of thousands of dollars from extreme right-wing (mostly American) religious organizations who are fighting in Africa the morality war they have already lost in the United States. All told, the Ugandans who stand to gain directly from the passing of the bill stands at around … a paltry 100 souls!

Uganda really can’t do without foreign Aid!

But Uganda is a country with 34million people and  they aren’t  interested in who is sleeping with who in the privacy of their homes. If they were, our neighbors know where we live and you would have seen mass lynchings of gay men and women all over the country. None of that is happening because Ugandans are quite simply not that kind of people.

Yes, you will hear how 95% of Ugandan are opposed to homosexuality but it is also safe to argue that this figure doesn’t take into account the majority of Ugandans who don’t understand what they are opining about or who give knee-jerk responses that they can’t explain 5 minutes later. No, Ugandans don’t care one way or the other if gays live in their midst and it is opportunistic pastors and some people from the pro-gay side who make a living perpetrating the falsehood, who have painted the clearly wrong picture that Uganda is homophobic. It isn’t.

So, a bill that only myopic politicians and cynical pastors want is being touted as the panacea for Uganda’s moral decadence and Kadaga has ill-advisedly signed on to the silliness which, if made law,  will never pass the basic litmus test of legality or enforceability. On the more pessimistic side, Kadaga’s die is already cast and she will now forever be seen as the Speaker who took sides in a scheme that sought to suck the life out of the Ugandan economy just to please a handful of bigoted pastors.

It’s not the kind of legacy she wants to run on in 2015-16 but … to quote again from Macbeth … she is now “stepped in so far that should [she] wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er.”

President Yoweri Museveni and his prime minister, Amama Mbabazi, have Rebecca Kadaga exactly where they want her; on the political ropes.

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Time for Uganda’s major players to pronounce themselves on the Bahati Bill 10

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Want death/jail for homosexuals: Rebecca Kadaga and Cecilia Ogwal

We already know that Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni doesn’t like the Bahati anti-gay bill because he has said so publicly. Yes, it was wrung out of him by a persistent foreign press but Museveni is on record about his views which are that homosexuality is not new in Africa and, more pertinently, that he doesn’t want anything to do with this bill. His motivation for rejecting the bill is debatable of course – but that’s not our concern right now.

Don’t favor the bill: Kizza Besigye, Erias Lukwago, Yoweri Museveni

One of Yoweri Museveni’s long term advisers, John Nnagenda, is also on record condemning the bill because he, rightly, realizes that it is a bill against love.

We also know that the outgoing leader of the opposition, Forum for Democratic Changes’s (FDC) Kiiza Besigye would have decriminalized homosexuality if he had had the chance because he is on record saying so a month before the last elections which he lost to Yoweri Museveni.

Speaker of the House, Rebecca Kadaga, recently let herself be railroaded by personal political ambition into the anti-gay camp when she was ambushed by Canadian Foreign Minister, John Baird. She engaged in an undiplomatic spat with Baird which was not her creation, but which nonetheless ill-advisedly drove her into the cynical embrace of failed Ugandan politicians and criminal convicts.

Mike Mukula seems to see ‘jail time’ as an improvement on the bill

Right now she is,  to quote from Macbeth,  “stepped in so far that should [she] wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er.” Dokolo woman MP, Cecilia Ogwal needed no needling to go off like a fire cracker against homosexuality recently – something she had every right to do, and which put her sentiments on record.

A few years ago, around 2009, current mayor of Kampala, then member of

Always dapper: Mike Mukula (NRM’s Chairman in Uganda’s East)

Parliament for Kampala, Erias Lukwago went on record and explained that he thought the law was unnecessary but it was politically too risky not to support it. I for one read that to mean that he doesn’t support the bill.

But what are the rest of Uganda’s major politicians thinking about Parliament’s drive to criminalize ‘love?’

What does Uganda Federal Alliance’s (UFA) Beti Kamya think of the bill? Kamya has in the past waxed indignant about the sovereignty of Uganda’s Parliament but it’s not clear that she has ever clearly stated what she thinks about the merits/demerits of the bill itself.

Views on the bill unknown: Beti Kamya & Muhoozi Kainerugaba

FDC”s  presidential aspirants, Mugisha Muntu and Nandala Mafabi? I have asked Nandala Mafabi on his Twitter account about his views but am yet to see any response.

The Democratic Party’s (DP’) Betty Namboze? The National Resistance Movement’s (NRM)’s Mike Mukula, Janet Museveni? The army’s Muhozi Kainerugaba (also son to Yoweri Museveni)? He is not a politician but his name keeps on popping up as a potential president. He is also the de facto head of Uganda’s intelligence services so it stands to reason that his views on this bill are pertinent as, presumably, it will be part of his remit to collect ‘buggery’ data without which it will surely be impossible to prosecute homosexuals.

John Nagenda: This is a bill “against love”

Mike Mukula touts himself on his Twitter account as a 2016 presidential aspirant. Mukula seems to be suggesting that the bill will be more acceptable if the death penalty is removed and replaced with jail time. I have asked him why ‘loving’ should be penalized with jail time and I hope he will respond.

Museveni’s wife, Janet, hasn’t indicated so openly what her future political ambitions are but she is mentioned now and then as a possible shoo-in for 2016 should her husband, lo behold, give up the leadership mantle.

What are all these honorable and notable people’s views on the Bahati anti-gay bill? It is surely time for them to tell Uganda and the world what they think.

Why now?

Presidential aspirant: Mugisha Muntu

Simple. It is very likely that the bill will be passed by Uganda’s 9th Parliament. While no one should question the legitimacy of Uganda’s Parliament to debate even a heinous bill such as this one, it is important that politicians of whatever hue let their people know where they stand on it.

Beti Kamya and Muhoozi Kainerugaba, for instance, are not Parliamentarians. Yet they are leaders of sizable constituencies in Uganda, and so their views on a matter that seeks to criminalize homosexuals, their parents, doctors, priests and counselors should be made public.

So:

should gay Ugandans be jailed for 14 years simply for being who who they are? Should they instead be executed? Should parents, friends, counselors, priests, doctors snitch on whoever they find out is gay or risk a 3-year jail term? Should there be a separate law at all to target homosexuals in a way that heterosexuals are not targeted for crimes that either sexual persuasion can commit?

These are the questions our leaders need to answer once and for all.

We wait …  with bated breath …

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A letter to Rebecca Kadaga – from a supportive gay Ugandan 20

Gay - Human Rights, Uganda - Politics • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Madam Speaker, the right Honorable Rebecca Kadaga, Member of Parliament (MP) for the Kamuli District Women’s Constituency since 1989.

You are on a roll!

Over the last three weeks you have managed to hog the media spotlight almost exclusively, relegating Uganda’s president to a parenthesis. That makes you something of a wonder woman. It takes chutzpah to push Uganda’s president to the inside pages and you must be congratulated for stepping up in such a bold way.

First of all, Madam Speaker, welcome back from Canada.

You were absolutely right to stand up to John Baird when he upbraided you in public about the murder of David Kato. That case had

On a roll: Uganda’s Rebecca Kadaga

nothing to do with you and you were never part of the court case that eventually convicted Kato’s lover for that heinous crime. So, you did what you had to do for yourself and, indeed, for Uganda’s pride. John Baird would never speak to the Saudis or Kuwaitis in that manner – yet those countries have far more glaring gay and women’s rights abuses than Uganda.

But as with everything, Madam Speaker, please remember that hubris is a terrible vice in politics. By hubris, I mean an excess of pride, ambition or self-confidence. More often than not, it leads politicians to overreach.

Take your current involvement with failed politicians like James Nsaba-Buturo and convicted felons like Martin Ssempa and Michael Kyazze. While you have every right to listen to whoever wishes you to lend them an audience, as the Speaker of the House you represent the entire Parliament as well as the country. You thus cannot be seen to be siding with any one constituency even when their cause might further your own political ambitions. Speakers of the House have to be seen to be non-partisan, non-aligned, neutral. But of course you know this already.

Madam Speaker, this gay man wants you to encourage Uganda’s Parliament to debate and pass the bill. My reasons for this are detailed here. In short, this bill has hung over our heads like a cloud for three years now and it is time to resolve the issues surrounding it once and for all. If you support the bill because you feel it is against our culture, so be it.

But the facts don’t bear you out.

You are too smart not to be aware that Buganda’s Kabaka Mwanga was homosexual without any urging from colonialists. Uganda’s own president, the leader of your National Resistance Movement party agrees, and has admitted it publicly, that homosexuality has always been part of the African and Ugandan fabric. In fact, if you re-read

Wasn’t aware of the danger as he enjoyed himself: Damocles

your anthropology, you will find that homosexuality was tolerated before the white man came to Africa with his Bible – that foremost foreign import that our detractors love to subjectively, but liberally, quote from. I gather that you have no children of your own but it can’t be lost on you that all gay men and women in Uganda (500,000 and counting according to unofficial estimates) must have been begotten through heterosexual unions.

I thus disagree with your interpretation of the historical facts but feel that the bill should nonetheless go ahead since Uganda has a parliamentary system of making laws and the Bahati [Nazi] Bill which seeks to turn mothers, doctors, counselors into informers has already been tabled before the House.

homo bible 8393622_nMadam Speaker, allow me to take you back to Shakespeare and caution you against “vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself, and falls on the other side.” Given what you must surely know befell Macbeth and his over-ambitious wife, a little more circumspection, forethought, moderation before you speak might not come amiss.

Remember, too, the fable of Icarus who flew too close to the sun. Or that of Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse and his courtier named Damocles. You might be on a roll now, but there are all sorts of threats behind the glory you are seeking. A week is a very long time in politics but there are three more years to go to Uganda’s next presidential election – literally a lifetime.

Madam Speaker:

Hang on to your political ambitions. I would, however, presume to remind you that, as Speaker, you represent the entire country, including minorities – not just disgraced politicians, bigoted Parliamentarians or convicted religious prelates.

Madam Speaker:

Whether this bill is passed or not, you still have my support in your obvious quest to become the next president of Uganda – that is if I am not jailed and/or killed before 2016 by the legislation that you are so busy tying your colors to in which case my support will be moot.

From a gay Ugandan, living in Uganda, that you seek to criminalize purely on account of who he is, but who nonetheless supports your presidential ambitions because he is totally fed up to the back teeth of this uncaring, bungling, corruption-ridden, thieving, tired, rusted, putrid dish of a government.

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Let the Bahati Nazi Anti-Gay Bill be passed! 6

Gay Social, Uganda - Politics • Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Surrounded by “school children and teachers” (it’s not clear where they got them from in the middle of a school day, during examinations time), Uganda’s foremost homophobes have written a lengthy communiqué demanding that the Bahati anti-gay bill is debated and passed by Uganda’s Parliament as a Christmas gift to … themselves.

It’s time for their wish to be granted.

I have actually come to the conclusion that the best possible outcome IS for the Bahati Bill to be passed. Within hours, it’ll be in constitutional court, it’ll be repealed without a doubt (as it is in breach of several constitutional provisions), and everyone will be able to get on with their lives. The actual reality is that Ugandans pretty much stopped caring a long time ago, that is, assuming they ever did. … … The bill is a red-herring.  Always has been. (James Onen aka Fat Boy)

There are a number of reasons why debating and passing the bill is now the best outcome:

1. It is time for this bill to stop hanging over the gay community like a nuclear cloud. If it is passed by Parliament, as it surely will,  then we can deal with its consequences “as is” as opposed to as we guess it might be.

2. All these so-called pro-children pastors and politicians have used this bill to enhance their profiles, raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from evangelical extremists abroad, all in the name of saving children and Christianity as we know it, and will continue to do so as long as the bill lies comatose in Committee. The dishonesty this bill has engendered needs to finally be stopped.

3. Even the gay community needs to get closure on this bill one way or the other. As things stand, we have all these rag

It’s time for my close-up Mr. DeMille

tag LGBTI organizations, some with just one executive and a fictitious list of members, who talk to well wishers in yonder lands and ask for money on behalf of the gay community in Uganda ostensibly to fight this bill. If it is settled by Uganda’s courts, the bona fide gay lobby could then focus on raising awareness for issues that actually impact the gay community in Uganda such as HIV/Aids plus other health and wellness crises that have taken a back sit because they don’t grab the headlines, don’t make for sensational copy.

4. The Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament, peripatetic Rebecca Kadaga, (who I must admit I like a lot) is currently riding high in Uganda on the back of just this bill. She seems busier than a bee these days; turning up one morning in Quebec to spar with Canada’s foreign minister, the other she’s getting off the plane at Entebbe Airport to a hero’s welcome, the next she’s chairing human rights meetings in London, and the next she’s dancing the Tamenaibuga on top of a pick-up truck in Kamuli.

It is time for this bill to pass so that we can examine her stalking horse candidacy critically in the light of more deserving national concerns. It is very well for a politician to milk a vote-getting issue dry, albeit it one that tramples the human rights of a cross-section of her fellow citizens, but it is quite another for her to be given a free ride on everything else simply because she stood up to a boorish Canadian foreign minister.

I find myself on the extreme spectrum of those who want the damn bill to pass. I am curious to see how in the hell they’d enforce such a crappy law. (not to mention I plan to abuse it, BUM-CHECK road blocks … (Kim Bakugan John)

5. Last but not least, Sebaspace is sick and tired of talking about this bill. Let’s get it debated, passed, thrown out by the courts and then I can finally work on my edifying tome that I know will win me the Nobel Literature prize that I so deserve but which I can’t quite focus on yet because of all the din surrounding whether I will be in jail or alive once the damn bill is passed.

In fact it will be in my literary interest if I am thrown in jail or killed on account of this bill. Imagine those worldwide headlines … and my adoring fans screaming my name to the Pope to make me a saint …

Gay literary genius a martyr!  Uganda’s foremost gay literary genius jailed for life … Homophobic mob flashes gay literary genius in middle of a pot-holed street! … Jailed Ugandan gay literary genius up for a Pulitzer Prize … Ugandan gay genius the new Oscar Wilde … Sebaspace aced by Bahati Nazi law!

Let this bill be passed.

All right Mr. DeMille, I am ready for my close-up.

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A freshly rejuvenated Ugandan homophobic lobby goes to work 8

Gay - Human Rights, Uganda - Politics • Tags: , , , ,

In a communiqué they have entitled “Statement from Concerned citizens,” a freshly energized anti-gay cabal hasn’t wasted much time going to work on Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, with their singular intention being to pass the Bahati Nazi anti-gay bill. In Kadaga, who is running for president in 2016 if she were a day, they are apparently preaching to the choir.

Long though it is, it’s best to put down their deliberations verbatim … even if only for posterity:

**************************

Statement  by Coalition of Religious leaders, Civil Society

Organizations, Parents, Children & Citizens of Uganda

[Delivered at Public Meeting  with Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alitwala Rebecca Kadaga at the CHOGM Gardens next to the Parliament of Uganda on November 9, 2012]

The Rt. Hon Speaker of Parliament, Members  of Parliament

Religious Leaders Civil Society Leaders Parents

Students

Ladles & Gentlemen

All protocol observed

Rt. Hon. Speaker, we thank you for making the time in your busy schedule to come and meet us as a coalition of religious leaders, civil society leaders, parents, and students who are here representing the citizens of Uganda.

Many of our people who came to welcome you at the airport last week were not able to see you and were not able to properly  welcome you back in our warm Ugandan sty/e. For that matter, we now wish to welcome you properly  back to Uganda after doing such a wonderful job of standing for our values and culture in Canada. We thank you for accepting our request for this meeting.

We also wish to now thank you officially  as Ugandans for the brave and firm way that you defended the sovereignty of our nation. You did not allow yourself to be bullied or .intimidated by Canada and other powerful Western nations that are fond of arm-twisting developing nations to force them to adopt Western culture some of which is perversion such as homosexuality.

We thank you as a nation and honor you for following the example of the President in making a historic stand in the face of such arrogance as was being displayed at the IPU meeting.

Indeed this brave stand you made as one of the delegates turned out to be the GIANT STAND that represented the position of all the right thinking nations of the world.  We have heard of how delegates from African, Arab, Asian and South

America gave you a standing ovation  after your prolific  defense of our culture and morals.  We say BRAVO to you Hon. Speaker. We as Ugandans are proud of you and you have made us proud.

 Rt. Hon. Speaker, we are gathered here this morning very troubled by what we consider as a serious threat  to our children, marriages, families, culture, convictions and our very way of life.

Rt. Hon Speaker, allow me to refresh your memory.

In the  early  months  of  2009, information came to  light  that  our  children  were being molested  and recruited into  gay activities  (homosexuality and lesbianism). This was being carried  out by well-organized and well trained  homosexual groups operating  in  our  schools  and  institutions of  higher  learning  with  funding  and backing from some Western governments and international organizations.

The whole nation  was outraged  and on April 23, 2009 a petition was delivered to Parliament with  signatures  from  all over the nation  asking Parliament  to urgently take measures to safeguard our children and nation from the onslaught of this destructive vice of homosexuality.

Rt. Hon Speaker, the petition was received by none other than yourself when you were the Deputy Speaker. Subsequently, on October 14, 2009, Hon. David Bahati the MP for Ndorwa  West tabled the Anti-Homosexuality Bill [AHB] in Parliament.

The  AHB  raised  unprecedented international  reactions   and  response  mainly coming from  international gay activists, international organizations  and Western nations that have come under the influence  of the gay agenda. While the spirit of the AHB was mainly to provide  protection to the innocent children  of Uganda, the gay activists using the  powerful Western  media  which  they  control, deliberately distorted the facts about  the bill and misled the world  into  thinking that the AHB was a “hunt gays and kill gays” bill. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Uganda as a nation  was then  put  under  pressure to block the  AHB. To this end, government   officials,   MPs  and  the   President   were   pressurized   using  every possible means and in every possible  international forum  to  drop  the  AHB. The international gay machinery  and Western  governments then  poured  millions  of United States Dollars in Uganda to support the gay agenda in Uganda.

 Some of the things that this money was used for include: training  and building the capacity of Ugandan gay activist groups, recruiting and training  lawyers to defend homosexuals   in  court,  directly   offering money  to  people  in  key  positions  to oppose the  AHB and threatening them  with  denial  of visas and other  threats  if they   don’t    agree.   They   also  sponsored    programs   in  the   media   that   are sympathetic  to  the  gay agenda, offering money  and favors to  lure  weak, needy and poor  Ugandan  youth  into  homosexuality/lesbianism. They further embarked on strategic  activities in  our  institutions of  higher  learning  where  students  are directly  and deliberately indoctrinated with  gay-biased information in the lecture rooms right  from  first  year. It is deplorable and indeed  sad to note  that  students who refuse to accept the gay philosophy are deliberately failed.

In the  early  months  of  last year, some  sections  of the  international gay activist groups began celebrating their  success in managing  to  ”kill” the  AHB. However, the  bill  has  managed  to  stay  alive  and  has successfully  crossed  from  the 8th Parliament to the 9th  Parliament.

Rt. Hon  Speaker, we  are  grieved  as Ugandans  to  watch  this  drama  of  events happen  before  our  very  eyes as the  vice of  homosexuality  takes its toll  on our children  and  nation. Parents  mourn   quietly   as their   sons  and  daughters  are molested in schools by homosexuals  and they have nowhere  to turn for help.

Young boys  are  constantly  sexually  abused  with  impunity by  powerful personalities and their  cries fall on deaf ears as their  abusers threaten them  and boast  of  being  ”untouchable” in  our  very  nation,  where  according  to  the  law books  homosexuality  is  still  a crime.   As though   that  is  not  enough,  there  is rampant  availability of pornography. Also numerous  movies and soap operas that are broadcast  in the  nation  contain  homosexual content.  This is all a deliberate strategy by the gay agenda to desensitize our children  and reprogram their  minds and attitudes to accept homosexuality as a viable and equal alternative  to heterosexuality.

Rt. Hon. Speaker, we cannot sit back while  such destructive phenomenon is taking place in our nation. We therefore as responsible citizens feel duty bound to bring this  matter  to  your  attention as the  leader  of  Parliament  so that  you our  law makers can do  something to  quickly  address this  deteriorating situation  in our nation.

 We  therefore  stand   united   as  Ugandans  on  this   matter  of   homosexuality regardless of our tribes, ethnicities, political affiliations, social and religious backgrounds and wish to state as follows:-

i.        That  we  support  the  stand  that  His Excellency the  President, you Rt.Hon. Speaker and the government have taken on homosexuality  stating that it is a vice and as such is not an acceptable behavior  in our nation.

ii.       That  we  will  stand  behind  the  government  and  all  our  leaders  and encourage  them  to stand firmly  and defend  our position as a nation on homosexuality  in   all   fora,   whether    local  or   international.  We  as Ugandans are ready to pay the price of maintaining our values, cultural and  societal  norms  whatever  the  cost might  be. We categorically  say that we will not sell our national  birthright in exchange for a few dollars to softening on the vice of homosexuality.

iii.       We encourage  all leaders at all levels to emulate  your good example Rt.

Hon  Speaker  and  that  of  the  President  to  accurately  represent  our position as a nation on homosexuality.

We now request you Rt. Han Speaker to use your good offices to:-

i.            Urgently  have the  Parliament  debate  and pass the  Anti-Homosexuality Bill without any further delay. Nothing  would  make us happier  than a dully passed anti-homosexuality bill as a Christmas gift this year.

ii.        Institute a parliamentary committee to  investigate  the  extent  of  the recruitment of our  children  into  homosexuality· and the  impact  of this vice in our schools, institutions of higher learning and any other relevant areas of our society.

iii.       Establish a safe mechanism  whereby  our  sons and daughters who are molested  by homosexuals can be protected from  harm by the homosexual abusers and their machinery.

iv.       Maintain homosexual  behavior as a crime in our law books.

v.            Explore  ways  of  collaborating or  working together with  the  religious groups,  civil  society  groups,  other  stakeholders  such  as schools and universities to find viable interventions to mitigate the damage that has been   wrecked    in   our   society   by  the   gay  agenda   that   has  been operational in our nation for some time now.

In closing, we are aware that some of our youth have been misled by gay activists and  have  been   led   into   the   vice  of   homosexuality  using  inducement   and enticement. We  are  also aware  that  there  are  those  whose  surroundings  and other  factors  leads them  to  same sex attractions. For such people, we extend a hand  of  love  and  understanding and give  them  the  good  news  that  change is possible through  counseling, guidance and spiritual  and professional help.

To this end, no Ugandan  should sentence themselves  to a life of misery because of the false gay propaganda  that  change is impossible.  Many  homosexual  people have been successfully restored  to heterosexuality over the centuries.  Change is possible  and  our   religious   leaders  and  civil  society   organizations   with   the appropriate competencies will  spearhead the move to· bring  restoration to those Ugandans who need it.

*********************

Members present:
1.3 0% of Ugandan MPs were present at the conference.
2. The main religious leaders were present
3. The Mufti was represented by the Imaam from Old Kampala,
4. Alex Mitala from the National Born Again fellowship.
5.Kiganda from Kingdom FM who also leads the Kampala Pentecostal Churches in Uganda
6. Joseph Serwadda from Born Again Faith Federation who also heads Impact FM and Victory Church
7.  Martin Ssempa
8. Simon Lokodo  – Minister of Ethics and Integrity
9. Hon David Bahati, MP
10. Speaker of Parliament – Hon Kadaga (chief guest)

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