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

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.

Janet Museveni: denied any part in writing the bill

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 …

Related articles

• A letter to Rebecca Kadaga – from a supportive gay Ugandan (sebaspace.wordpress.com)
• The case for Kadaga 2016 (sebaspace.wordpress.com)
• Canada’s Baird gives Ssempa and Bahati a new lease on life (sebaspace.wordpress.com)
• Let the Bahati Nazi Anti-Gay Bill be passed! (sebaspace.wordpress.com)
• A freshly rejuvenated Ugandan homophobic lobby goes to work (sebaspace.wordpress.com)

Beti Kamya loses me 6

Beti Kamya has lost me with her latest article on Uganda’s Parliamentary sovereignty and Bahati’s Nazi Bill.

Money quote:

They [Western donors] chose high handedness, clearly manifesting that democracy is for the rich, not for Africa, and that in Africa, by touching the right buttons, democracy becomes a meaningless word.

I have read her piece a couple of times and remain quite confused.

And the main reason I am confused is that Beti Kamya now seems to think that Uganda is a democracy and Uganda’s Parliament is relevant. But isn’t she on record on numerous occasions saying that Uganda is a dictatorship? Isn’t that actually one of the reasons she formed the Uganda Federal Alliance – to protest against the undemocratic nature of Uganda’s politics?

And don’t we have ample evidence from the Bahati bill she has nailed her Parliamentary colors to that Uganda is indeed a dictatorship, and that Parliament is irrelevant? After all, the only reason why the bill has still not been brought up for debate in Parliament despite widespread support from that house is that Museveni poured cold water on it after being prevailed upon by Western donors. Isn’t that the definition of a dictatorship; the president overriding what Parliament unanimously wants and imposing his singular will on legislative processes? What Parliamentary sovereignty is Ms. Kamya talking about then?

And if she, too, admits that the Parliamentary dignity in Uganda is, to use her own word, “fake”, why would she want to hang on to it?

Is that contradictory or what? Perhaps Beti’s article is tongue in cheek and ought to be read as such.

AfroGay knows that Bati Kamya is not an enemy of gay people.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that Beti is the one Parliamentarian who wouldn’t harbor that kind of sentiment. My concern is that she has in the past argued that Uganda’s Parliament is irrelevant (something I quite agree with) and now seems to think that because the West is pushing Bahati around, Parliament is relevant after all.And, finally, is a Nazi bill of this sort really the kind of legislation that Kamya feels deserves her wholesome attention to reaffirm Parliament’s supremacy? Sink or swim with a bill that so blatantly seeks to abuse the human rights of a cross-section of society so that a point about Uganda’s Parliamentary sovereignty can be made?

Coming from Beti Kamya, that, too,  seems like a contradiction to me.