World Bank blacklists Uganda! Last week, the World Bank released a statement on declaring how it has suspended all funding to Uganda as a country.
In their view, they say Uganda has not respected their dear values that include inclusiveness of diversity regardless of people’s race, religion or sexual orientation.
Specifically tagging on sexual orientation, the bank says Uganda is denying the homosexuality groups of people from living free and fairly in the East African nation having passed the recent anti-homosexuality law that prohibits any act of homosexuals and attracts life imprisonment or even death.
When was the anti-Homosexuality law passed in Uganda?
The anti-Homosexuality Act (Law) 2023 was passed into law by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni who approved it on May 29th 2023 by signing it. The law was introduced to parliament of Uganda in March by Bugiri Municipality Legislator, Asuman Basalirwa as a bill which was discussed thoroughly by the Members of parliament who then sent it to the president for approval.
Before parliament which is the legislative arm of Government, forms a new law, a member from the parliament has to introduce a bill which is a draft (rough copy) of a new law that is to be added to the country’s system of rules and regulations.
The bill is then has to be approved by the current president from the executive arm of government for it to be officially recognized as a law.
Members of the Ugandan parliament first discussed the anti-homosexuality bill in March 2023 and sent it to the president for approval who then sent it back citing some of the clauses as too harsh.
I will not highlight the specific harsh clauses for simplicity’s sake, however, the Ugandan president noted that a human being should not be punished for being a homo-sexual but rather should be punished if he/she promotes homosexuality.
President Museveni clearly has no problem against the gay people doing their things in private because probably that’s their nature and he can tolerate that but the same gay people moving out to promote the vice among other members of the Ugandan society is where the problem comes in.
A brief about the history of Homo-Sexuality in Uganda
Uganda has been on the global radar for being a notorious nation when it comes to homo-sexuals (gay people). Its people under their culture naturally resent anything that has to do with a same sex relationship and this has been the case way before any laws were introduced targeting gay people.
In the 1900s while still under colonial rule, there was a law introduced by the colonialists that prohibited any sexual acts which are against the order of nature and the law under section 145 of the penal code Act attracted a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. But this law was largely unknown to the general public, since it was enacted over 50 years ago in pre-independence times.
But in 2009 the fact that homo-sexuality had no room in a typical Ugandan society was brought into the public eye and for the world to see that Ugandans hate the vice. It was amplified in the media and the local people supported it because in their culture, a man is supposed to be with a woman and that is what starts up a traditional family but not a man with a man nor a woman with a woman.
David Bahati, a member of Ugandan parliament in 2009 is the one who turned on the lights switch for a fresh debate on homosexuality in Uganda by introducing an anti-homosexuality act on the floor of Parliament to curb the vice that was slowly eating up Ugandans then.
Bahati’s bill took a whopping 5 years to be passed by the parliament that kept on dodging it. The reasons surrounding parliament’s dodgy behavior around the bill at that time came from threats by the West i.e. Europe and USA that threatened to cut off all forms of aid to Uganda incase the anti-gay law was passed.
It is in December 2013 that the bill was finally discussed and passed by the parliament which later forwarded it to the executive arm of government for approval from President Museveni who then signed it into law in February of 2014.
A few months down the road that same year (2014), the law was nullified in other words made legally null and void by the constitutional court in Uganda after it was challenged by a number of human rights defenders who claimed it was unfair to the sexual minority of Uganda who include homos.
Since 2014, the government which created the law did not go to a court higher than the constitutional court in order to revoke the decision of nullifying the new law.
The damage had already been done and the Western media was awash of news of the new law which people world over received and now knew that Uganda was a no-go-zone for gay people.
What caused Uganda to re-introduce a law on the Homo-Sexuals
After years of silence about homosexuality in the country after the 2014 anti-gay act was nullified, a new breed of homosexuality took center stage in Uganda. Recruitments were happening day and night especially in the education institutions.
To make things worse, hangouts, entertainment spots, Hollywood movies, the media especially social media all started featuring homosexual content that was being largely pushed by the international LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) groups.
Stories began to creep out of the most sacred places in the society that include the church where priests were accused of practicing homosexuality with young children. These allegations were rare but rumors always had it that something was going astray in church.
The first lady of Uganda, Janet Museveni ordered a probe into a homosexuality case at one of the oldest schools in Uganda, Kings College Budo. It is alleged that a teacher at the century old school had sodomised one of the students there. This was after the student’s mother posted the matter on social media moments after the son had been suspended by Budo for involvement in acts of homo-sexuality with one of the school’s teachers.
It’s basing on this case that the ministry of Education which the first lady heads and the parliament got in touch and swiftly responded to the rising tendencies of homosexuality in Uganda by having the discussion tabled in parliament after the speaker, Anita Among had also ordered investigations into the Budo case.
