Ugandan President Gen Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni has assured Ugandans and the West that he is ready for the war to defend the Anti-Homosexuality Act, which he recently assented to. Proclaiming that it was now finished, Museveni has stated that there would be no turning back.
And the direct audience to which Gen Museveni gave this assurance was a parliamentary caucus of his ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM). Although the majority of MPs voted in favour of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, it is no secret that the NRM has a comfortable majority in the 11th Parliament, an advantage they have always used to pass bills the president and party chairman is passionate about.
The MPs were summoned to the National Leadership Institute (NALI) in Kyankwanzi District days after they passed the Anti-Homosexuality Act for a second time. They are being given lectures by the president on how to be good leaders, how to help drive their constituents out of poverty through the Parish Development Model (PDM).
So, on the fifth day of the 10-day retreat, Gen Museveni sought to assure MPs that he would defend his and their position on the anti-gay law, especially in light of recent threats of sanctions, visa restrictions and aid cuts by the US government.
The President told the West that Ugandans were sure of the path they had chosen and that that they would not be intimidated into changing this path. Museveni urged citizens to ignore threats, telling them that the country had done well to take a stand on homosexuality since the practice had grave consequences for the survival of the human race.
He made it clear that as far as he was concerned he and the MPs had done due diligence and that there was no problem with the new law. He told them there was no need to worry because they had done the right thing and followed the appropriate procedures.
“If you are fighting for the right cause, there’s no force which can defeat you. But the problem I sometimes get with some of your groups is that you don’t take care to make sure that you are on the right side. This is why, I returned the bill last time, because I could see some illogicalities in it,” said the 78-year-old long serving ruler.
Known for his story telling and lengthy lectures, Museveni talked of how homosexuality remained a matter of whispers and rumor about 200 years ago with nobody interested in marketing it or imposing it on others since it was majorly a matter of individual deviance.
“Homosexuality existed in Buganda, Bunyoro and Karagwe in Tanzania in the last 200 years with a few people rumored to be homosexuals but there was no proof. The People were not encouraging it, but also, they were not fighting it because it was like a hidden, small secret of some few people,” said Museveni.
“So, when it came up in 2014, this time I tried to study this issue. What is it? Is homosexuality genetic? Is it inherited by some people? Is it hormonal i.e., somebody gets an imbalance of hormones and ends up with some distortion? Etc. But when we had a long discussion, including a group that was brought by Sarah Opendi to Entebbe involving many African people; the conclusion was a No. This is a psychological disorientation by some people at some stage – it’s not genetic, it’s not hormonal, it is psychological disorientation where somebody, because of some experience, hates the people you should love and loves the people you should not love. It’s like a sickness.”
He also revealed the issues he discussed with the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs when the bill was returned to Parliament for reconsideration.
“So, if that is the case, then what do you do? That’s why, therefore, I advised your whips, the ones I invited, to say, if somebody is psychologically disoriented, you can’t punish him for that. You can’t criminalize him for that. So that’s why, therefore, I persuaded your whips who came, to go back to Parliament and persuade you, that please make it clear that suspicion or merely being suspected cannot be criminalized, cannot and should not be criminalized because it is like a sick person. If somebody is sick, do you criminalize him for that?” he wondered.
“Now I’m glad when they went back, apparently, they cured this. This was what was cured and because the Attorney General was there, he captured it. They did, and they added something saying that for the avoidance of doubt, mere suspicion will not be a problem. So, then what is the problem? The problem is that, yes, you are disoriented. You have got a problem to yourself. Now, don’t try to recruit others. If you try to recruit people into a disorientation, then we go for you. We punish you. That’s number one. But secondly, if you violently grab some children and you rape them and so on and so forth, we kill you. And that one I totally support, and I will support.
If you are suspected of being a homosexual, it is not an offense in itself. You are a person to be helped on the issue of homosexuality. If you want help it should be given, because it was said that some of the people can be helped to get back to normal. But secondly, if you want now to disorient others, we go for you, we punish you by imprisonment. If you go beyond that and you start raping children and so on, we kill you. So there, we are.”
Without mentioning US President Biden who has already issued threats of sanctions, Museveni then made it clear that it was finished and that nobody will stop Uganda from implementing the new law. He told the MPs and citizens to be ready for a war to defend their moral stance.
“What we tell you in the day is what we shall tell you in the night. Therefore, the signing is finished, nobody will move us,” he said. “The other time when I met you at Kololo, I said you people should be ready for a war. And you cannot fight a war when you are a pleasure seeker, if you like a soft life. So, war is not for soft life,” he stated.
The president’s assurance to MPs is being seen as a direct response in which he sought to fire back at US President Biden who, following Museveni’s assent to the Anti-Homosexuality Act, revealed the tough ways in which he and his US Administration would soon punish Uganda over the law against homosexuals. (See Details Here).
Defenders of homosexuals such as opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye’s wife Winnie Byanyima are finding trouble convincing Ugandans to accept gays. Byanyima has been blasted for working to promote a bazungu agenda to keep her job at the UNAIDS. Her son has previously been dragged into the homosexuality debate. (See Details Here, There and Over There).
Meanwhile, a vocal Ugandan balokole pastor who previously opposed homosexuality is being blasted for making a U-turn and beginning to ‘speak in tongues’ after he trashed the Anti-Homosexuality Act. (Read Story Here).
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