KAMPALA, Uganda
President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni has defended the move to assent to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law, urging Ugandans to remain firm as no amount of intimidation or actions will make him change the decision.
Speaking at Kyankwanzi,
Museveni commended MPs for their support adding that once they are fighting for
the right cause no one can defeat them.
He explained that he returned
the bill to parliament because he had identified some illogicalities that had
to be amended.
“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,” Museveni said.
He noted that the issue of
homosexuality is a very serious one that centers around the human race, saying
it requires a lot of seriousness when handling it.
The president said
homosexuality was whispered and rumored about 200 years ago in this part of the
world but was not publicized or promoted; it was considered purely private.
“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”.
He that when the issue emerged
again in 2014, he tried to study the root causes of the vice to determine the
genesis of it , whether it was genetic, hormonal or hereditary.
“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, for example somebody gets an
imbalance of hormones and ends up with some distortion?”
“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 said that after
thorough analysis with the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs, three
positions were identified which led to the clarification and amendment of the
Homosexuality Bill.
“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.”
“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.”
He said when someone violently
grabs children and they rape them, the law ensured the perpetuators are killed.
“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,” he said.
President Museveni however
told the NRM Caucus members of the concern by one of the officials from the
World Bank who pointed out two issues in the current bill, that, if necessary,
will be referred back to Parliament for scrutiny and amendment.
He said the two issues by the
officials include requiring employers to make sure there are no homosexuals in
their company and blaming real estate owners for houses being rented by
homosexuals.
“If that is there, then we
should sort it out. So, these are the two areas which you should check again.
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