Editorial
Uganda anti-gay bill: A Misguided Policy
By Christmas Eve of 2012, it was apparent that on top of a general paucity that comes with being one of the world’s poorest countries, Ugandans were not going to receive the ‘Christmas Gift’ their own Speaker of Parliament promised them. In perhaps what some may consider a logical political calculus, Speaker Rebecca Kadaga – Uganda’s first female one – gave in to the people’s demands, tethered herself to the infamous ‘Kill the Gays Bill’ and promised to deliver to her country a law that would not only stave off the onslaught of homosexuals but also protect their innocence of Ugandan children.
First introduced in 2009 by Member of Parliament (MP) David Bahati of the ruling and majority National Resistance Movement (NRM) party, the ‘Kill the Gays Bill’ reached the international scene at almost the same level as Idi Amin, Joseph Kony and HIV/AIDS. And due to its apparent death wish for people of alternate sexuality, the international community rightfully protested – cornering Uganda’s all-powerful President Yoweri Museveni – and eventually, getting Uganda to capitulate in removing it from parliament.
That was 2010. In 2012, the anti-gay bill is back, sans the death penalty. That the bill is now at parliamentary committee status, basically a few steps from a floor vote where it will most likely pass, is indicative of what kind of strategic considerations are being made by Uganda’s political cognoscenti. In essence, just like no Republican in the US Congress wants to be associated with an increase in taxes, a Ugandan member of parliament would not want to be seen as the one who launched homosexuality at his or her community doorstep.
Although Uganda already has laws that penalize gay sexual acts, the proposed legislation is especially meant to be pernicious to those ‘monied external influences’ from destroying African culture by imposing harsh incarceration and even life imprisonment for those who have sex with minors, the disabled and also those who infect them with HIV/AIDS.
But just like the push for the original anti gay legislation was allegedly driven by a nascent relationship between Hon. Bahati and America’s conservative lawmakers, some believe that this 2012 effort by the Speaker is also in response to external stimuli. After all, in early 2010, Museveni cited the immense pressure he was receiving from external donors as a reason to urge his party to cool its heel on those gay things.
Nonetheless, 2012 was an especially bad year for the Ugandan President, the NRM party and the country as a whole. In the same year that Joyce Banda peacefully ascended the Malawi Presidency as Africa’s second female leader, and just as John Mahama notched another political win for Ghana in the eyes of those watching for political transition, Uganda was, once again caught with its hand up the Congo’s skirts. Even worse, the Ugandan Prime Minister’s office was embroiled in a misappropriation of funds scandal – one in much bigger proportions than the Global Fund one of 2006 and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) one of 2008, with the latter claiming the political life of Uganda’s long standing Vice President, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya.
This most recent scandal even tarred the country’s supposedly squeaky-clean First lady and led to European donors including the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark cutting the aid lifelines to Uganda’s coffers.
