As expected by many, LGBT community in Uganda prepares for an round in the battle for their rights, as a new government statement emphasized the outlaw of the ‘promotion’ of homosexual acts.

In a statement released on Monday, Ethics minister Fr Simon Lokodo said The promotion of these festivities, which would purportedly have culminated in a “Gay Parade” on Saturday 6th August 2016, is criminal and illegal as they had not been cleared by the Police, and are against the laws of the Republic of Uganda; specifically the Penal Code, which is built on precedents, set in many other countries.

Section 145 unnatural offences of the Penal Code Act of 1950(Chapter 120) (as amended)  States that any person who permits a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature, commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment for life,” part of the statement signed Fr Lokodo said.

He sustained: “Government will not condone the promotion of the illegal activities of the LGBT movement and the organizers of the Gay Parade which had been planned for Saturday 6th August 2016 are advised to stop their activities immediately. The public is called upon to refrain from joining and participating in Gay activities.”
“In our society, our African values and cultures consider sexual activity to be private and personal, and it is not conducted in public. Certainly, neither is homosexuality. It is for this reason that the promotion of ‘gay’ activities is unwelcome,” the minister continued.

“Any person who, whether in public or in private, commits any act of gross indecency with another person who procures another person to commit any act of gross indecency with him or her or attempts to procure the commission of any such act by any person with himself or herself or with another person, whether in public or in private, commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.”
On Thursday 4 August, a group of LGBT members assembled at Venom Pub, Kabalagala, for a meeting without police clearance. Uganda Police was subsequently alerted and raided the assembly then around a dozen organisers and gay rights activists were arrested, according to eyewitness reports.

Hundreds of people attending the popular Mr and Mrs Pride Pageant were detained inside the Venom nightclub in Nsambya opposite the American embassy.

Police reportedly claimed the gathering was unlawful, although organisers of Uganda’s fifth gay pride week said they asked for permission.

One young man jumped from the fourth floor of the building in fear and was hospitalized.

Members of the crowd took off make-up and wigs in the hope police would not target them, Godiva Akullo tweeted while in the nightclub.

“Police are targeting anyone who looks ‘weird’,” she said.

“They are beating and handcuffing trans womyn [sic]. Criteria for beating is if you look masculine with ‘feminine’ hair.”

Two prominent LGBTIQ advocates, Dr Frank Mugisha and Pepe Julian Onziema, were some of the attendees taken into police custody, but all were released after a few hours.

Mr Onziema has since urged people to “not be fooled” and said the arrests were based on “pure homophobia and transphobia”.

Uganda’s annual pride event was at risk of not going ahead as the funds could not be secured, however more than 2,500 members of activist group All Out donated to fund the week’s events.

In Uganda, homophobia has been widespread since the prohibition of homosexuality in the 1950s. But it wasn’t until February that president Museveni signed a law that not only outlawed homosexual acts, but also compelled citizens to report suspected homosexual activity to the police, triggering increased levels of prejudice, violence and discrimination against the gay community.

In August 2014, just a few months later, the legislation was annulled: the law was passed without the requisite quorum, meaning that not enough MPs were present at the vote. The judgment was received by activists with cheers of joy, even though the verdict was based on technical grounds, rather than moral or ethical concerns.

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David Nyekorach Matsanga is not new to controversy and mention of his name reverberates like an echo in several African cities, carrying with it imaginations of the glitterati.

Matsanga, who led Joseph Kony’s delegation to the peace talks with Uganda between 2006 and 2008, is known as a Mr-fix-it, and has had close connections to among others Zimbabwe President Robert Gabriel Mugabe and Sudan president Omar Bashir, but is now linked to accusations of forgery, bribery and money laundering, in relation to the accusations he made against International Criminal Court (ICC) President, Ms.  Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi.

According to the ICC, ‘Matsanga forged invoices and bank statements, and named bank account holders who either do not exist or do not come from the country he cited’.

He claimed that the ICC president discreetly received more than US$17 million from Sudanese organisations to bribe witnesses for the court to indict Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir. Mr Matsanga has been a vocal anti-ICC activist and has accused the court of using its processes to punish African leaders, including Mr Bashir.

The ICC issued its first warrant of arrest against President Bashir on March 4, 2009, and the second one on July 12, 2010, but he has not been arrested yet by any signatory to the Rome Statute that established the ICC.

In a statement, ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah said the allegations had been taken through the Independent Oversight Mechanism (IOM) by the institution and found to be false.

The IOM is an independent body established by the Assembly of States Parties as an inspection, evaluation and investigation mechanism for the ICC.

“These allegations concerning the supposed involvement of the president with payments to Sudanese rebel groups are based on forged evidence and are, therefore, demonstrably untrue,” Mr Abdallah said in a statement.

Ms Gurmendi, an Argentinian who rose to the helm of the ICC in March 2015, was also accused of having money in several bank accounts, which the IOM said was not evidence of misconduct.

Who is Matsanga

In his early 60s, Matsanga first came to prominence after the fall of former Ugandan president Apollo Milton Obote of the Uganda Peoples Congress, a regime he served as a security operative working with the National Security Agency (NASA). He later fled into exile in the United Kingdom, where he reportedly embarked on academic pursuit, attaining a Doctorate. At the time he also tried his hand in politics, opposing the National Resistance Movement (NRM/A) government. Between 2006 and 2008, Mr Matsanga was part of warlord Joseph Kony’s delegation to the Uganda peace talks that were chaired by embattled former South Sudan Vice President Dr Riek Machar.

Since then he has been an on-and-off confidant to several embattled African leaders including Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Bashir (Sudan) and most recently Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya.

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The recently announced move to reduce the number of civil servants in the country has drawn strong criticism from the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).

Recently, political leaders of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) led by President Yoweri Museveni held a series of meetings at the National Leadership Institute (NALI) in Kyankwanzi where a number of issues including the reduction were discussed.

However, addressing a press conference at the FDC offices in Najjanankumbi today, the party Deputy Secretary General Harold Kaija said the NRM has gotten its priorities upside down because the reduction will foment unemployment.

Kaija, who deliberated on a number of sticky issues, added that the NRM government is extravagant, spending huge sums on ‘useless activities’ like the Kyankwanzi retreat. Other areas of fiscal imprudence, he said, include the disbursements to State House and to the Ministry of Defence.

On top of its ‘many’ failures, the NRM government has also increased the number of districts, which Mr Kaija said, would inflate the public service wage bill.

“The newly created five districts need chairpersons, members of parliament, RDCs and other leaders who all need a salary which in turn leaves no money in the government treasury to facilitate the payment of civil servants,” he said.

Kaija also noted that civil servants such as police, teachers and doctors greatly contribute to the development but hastened to add that in Uganda they are the worst paid and have lived under poor conditions over the last 30 years.

Linking the retrenchment to the currently trending topic of the Shs 1.3 trillion ‘bailout’ to individuals and companies that are allegedly distressed, Mr Kaija said the money should instead channel it to increasing the civil servants salaries.

“The government should look at increasing civil servants’ pay than bailing out these tycoons that are already rich,” he said adding in its 30 year rule the NRM government has not built a single hospital.

“The hospitals around were constructed by former presidents like Obote and Amin;  health centres are the only ones that have been put up by Museveni’s government but they lack manpower and equipment with no drugs,” Mr Kaija said, adding: “The president and his close relatives and officials get treatment from abroad so care less about the public welfare.”

He also spoke against land-grabbing, citing the recently-resurfaced case of the UBC land that had been controversially acquired by Burahya MP Margaret Muhanga.

“The earlier we see this government off the better for the people of Uganda” Kaija said, adding that the government is full of ‘hungry hyenas and vampires’ that do not care about the well being of the citizens.

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