Early this week, a private member’s Bill- the Anti Homosexuality Bill, was introduced in Parliament by the Bugiri Municipality MP, Alhajji Asuman Basalirwa. The development has since stirred wild reactions from the West who have over the years stuck their heads out as custodians of same-sex relations around the globe.
Threats have already been thrown Uganda’s way in the form of cutting aid by the development partners, especially the US who say they are considering revisiting their relations with the Kampala regime.
The threats come at a time when neighbouring Kenya has just “fallen in things” with a $ 60 Bn dollar funding days after Gill Biden’s(US’s First Son) suspicious visit to Nairobi a fortnight ago. Unsurprisingly, a highly unprecedented pro-LGBTQ ruling was passed by the country’s appellant Court.
The mouth-watering deal by the William Ruto regime would have been expected to break the back of President Museveni’s stance on LGBTQ but far from it, he remains strongly adamant.
While addressing Uganda’s approach to LGBTQ in Uganda and how it’s likely to impact the country’s relationship with the West, General Museveni indicated that he wasn’t giving a damn even if it risked to can’t his country billions of dollars in Foreign Aid.
” The West will not dictate to us how we manage our cultural affairs. Even if we don’t receive Aid from them, Uganda is rich enough to stand on its own. Aid is part of the problem for Africa and not a solution.” Museveni said while in South Africa over the weekend.
Museveni also divulged a few details in his interaction with Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy, whom he told of Uganda’s independence about food security even as Kenya was receiving 25,000 tones from Kyiv in food Aid.
Homosexuality has been spreading in the country at a worrying speed over the last couple of years. Acts of sodomy have been reported in high-end schools, universities, churches, entertainment industry, and are rumoured to be sponsored by various Non-Government Organisations being financed by foreign organisations.
Last year, the Speaker of Parliament Annet Anita Among and Education Minister Janet Kataha Museveni ordered a probe into the extent of LGBTQ activities in the country. The move followed a public outcry as a result of a lesbian couple of teenage girls who appeared for a prom party while holding hands indicating they were in a same-sex relationship and an outcry by a certain parent who narrated on social media that her son had been sodomised for years at one of the top Secondary schools in the country.
The country has been named among 77 around the globe that still criminalise same-sex relationships and has been under fire from the West over what they refer to as an abuse of human rights. On the contrary, Uganda insists blocking homosexuality falls under her mandate to preserve their culture and sanity, and such seems to be the position of the general public.
That the LGBTQ Community is too strong globally can not be denied, and the threat of being overpowered is understandable, having the battle-hardened Museveni as the lead fighter should be music in the ears of the majority of Ugandans who feel threatened by the vice. The battle is not yet lost, I can see light at the end of the tunnel.
The Writer is The Deputy RCC For Soroti East Division.
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