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Well besides the on-going ‘Mabaati’ scandal, it’s almost one month since parliament passed the highly contentious Anti- Homosexuality bill which came with tough restrictions and penalties among which was life imprisonment for the bum-shafters.
The bill’s passing elicited songs of praise and worship for the Ugandan parliament, speaker Anita Among and the mover of the motion who even drafted the bill Asuman Basalirwa who is also the member of parliament for Bugiri Municipality and the only legislator from his party JEEMA.
On the other hand however, the western powers were not happy with Uganda’s parliament for passing what they said would be a bad law which will water down efforts in the promotion of human rights and would be detrimental in the fight against HIV in Uganda.
The western activists and politicians also urged Museveni not to sign the Anti-Homosexuality bill into law. The European Union, the United States, among others warned Museveni of dire consequences especially in the line of funding should the Anti-gay bill become law in the pearl of Africa.
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The son of Kaguta was and is now held up to decide whether to sign the bill and preserve the culture, values and morals of Uganda or to trash it and appease his western donors who bring a lot of funding in his government in several key areas of Health, Security, Agriculture, Environment, Education among others.
On Saturday this week it will be 30 days since the bill was passed and subsequently it’s supposed to be signed into law by the president with in 30 days.
At the backdrop of arrests of his ministers implicated in the Mabaati saga, president Museveni has invited his NRM Members of parliament for a word or two regarding the Anti-Homosexuality Bill which parliament passed in unison without fear or favor but with flavor.
This has elicited questions on What did the president miss to tell his legislators before passing this contentious bill, indeed if they’re sections of the bill that put his foreign funding at stake, why did he not mention them before.
During yesterday’s plenary, Bukooli north legislator Solomon Silwany revealed that the Attorney General wrote to the president and advised them not to sign the Anti-Homosexuality bill into law.
Indeed the Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka accepted that his office wrote to the president not to append his signature to the bill without divulging much. The Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka is among those who opposed this bill and will still fight to the last step.
In response, the Attorney General, Hon @KiryowaKk told #PlenaryUg that his office rendered advice to the President on the legislative process. He however did not give details.
The Deputy Speaker Rt Hon @Thomas_Tayebwa guided that Parliament waits for the President to either… pic.twitter.com/lzdsKXyD0W
— Parliament Watch (@pwatchug) April 18, 2023
If the president fails to sign this bill into law, it would have suffered it’s second setback and might go silent forever. The first attempt to have the same law in the land ended in court and the then Justice Steven Kavuma led Court shot it down on grounds that parliament that passed it lacked quorum.
Veteran journalist Andrew Mwenda just like he did to the previous one which had even been signed into law in 2014 vowed to run to court to court to water down even this new version of the same law should president Museveni sign it into law.
The fate of the bill lies at the hands of NRM members of parliament who are meeting the president tomorrow at State House Entebbe for a word on the bill which has since been over shadowed by the on-going Mabaati scandal that has been three of Museveni ministers sent to Luzira prisons.
Funding or morals?
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