It’s only a paper lie (okugumaaza)

An independent paper in Uganda, The Daily Monitor, runs an op-ed by Augustine Ruzindana that says the real purpose of the Anti-Homosexual Bill is divert the public’s attention from the real crimes public corruption and mismanagement. “The life and death sentences introduced in the new Bill are to impress an external constituency critical for regime survival.”:

Uganda is in a situation of the Sherlock Holmes story of Silver Blaze in which a horse was stolen. The clue to the criminal was why the dog did not bark. The thief was its master.

Why does the government and Parliament find the Anti-Homosexual Bill more of a priority than the electoral bills and other governance issues? Already homosexuality is a criminal offence as a “crime against nature” in the Penal Code and marriage is defined in the Constitution as between man and woman. The life and death sentences introduced in the new Bill are to impress an external constituency critical for regime survival. Informed Ugandans know that such sentences will never be passed by any court of law. For example, how many people have been sentenced to death for defilement, even though this crime takes place very frequently and quite often culprits are arrested and tried? How many people have been given the draconian sentences imposed for bouncing cheques?

Ugandan urgent concerns that should be addressed are elimination of day-light robbery and waste of public resources, poverty, poor service delivery, unemployment of the youth and provision of clean water, quality education, health services and roads. The time spent on virginity, abstinence (by people not known for their continence) and of late, anti-homosexuality, is just diversionary (okugumaaza) to facilitate the continuation of unrestrained gorging on State resources.

Read it all. Transparency International lists Augustine Ruzindana as a member of its Advisory Council and a fomer MP in Ugandan Parliament.

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