Ronald Leonard Egesa

Ndorwa West MP David Bahati is the news man of the moment. What I find interesting though is the fact that those opposed to his private members’ bill are failing to give good reasons to convince the liberals to join their side. The media has been awash with headlines pointing at the powerful people of the west (President Obama, Top US Diplomat Hillary Clinton, British Premier Gordon Brown and the Canadian Premier among others) being against this bill. One of these was quoted as saying that passing this bill into law would be a major setback in the protection of human rights!

Interestingly, top Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda and Scientist and leader of opposition in Uganda, Prof Morris Ogenga Latigo argue that homosexuality is a trait exhibited by a small proportion of the human race just as is the case in other animal species. This is the reason they are suggesting that the bill is uncalled for and it is diversionary. I would like to remind these two learned men that every human being is born with a trait of theft and deceit among other common sins! For this very reason Jesus asked the fellows who brought a prostitute before him to front only one who had sinned not to be the first to cast a stone unto her! We all know that at one time in our lives, we have stolen something from a friend, brother, sister or even told a lie to achieve wealth, but we never oppose legislation that is geared towards addressing acts of Theft and telling lies and uttering false documents. Why then are we so much determined to fight the Bahati bill? Something is fishy here! There must be more than meets the eye that we must look out for in whoever is coming out to call sodomy a “HUMAN RIGHT”! It is also on record that Hon. Margaret Muhanga (sister to Andrew Mwenda) once said that God did not create Adam and Steven, but created Adam and Eve. She ought to tell this to her baby brother.

On the other hand, making the legislation is laudable and promising to make Uganda one of the most dangerous destinations for sodomists, but the question is will this law be implemented? What happens when the fellow implicated in sodomy is your brother, sister, father, mother, friend? These people who are close to you would be implicated in having had knowledge of homosexual activity in the vicinity. It is very hard to prove beyond reasonable doubt that someone had prior knowledge of sodomy between a pair of two other consenting adults since this does not amount into a conspiracy. Why then don’t we have such clauses in the penal code when dealing with theft or robbery or trespass?

In conclusion, the Bahati bill is a step in the right direction to let the sodomists not set foot in our motherland Uganda, but it needs to be panel-beaten to remove some clauses that are not directly dealing with the sodomists themselves. There is no point in the law being harsh to third parties who have other pressing issues to deal with.

FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY

Ronald Leonard Egesa
Email: leo@ronaldegesa.com
Tel: +256-752-442375
Kampala

Since its introduction, the Land (Amendment) Bill 2007 has met stiff resistance from the Mengo establishment. The government, as proponents of the Bill, has always made their case that it seeks to fight illegal evictions and when one reads the Bill, this seems to make sense.

On the other hand, Mengo and a number of MPs from Buganda have only been telling us that the Bill is “targeting” Buganda Kingdom where the Kabaka is the main landlord.

The interesting bit here is that the Bill’s opponents have not for once told us how the Bill is targeting Buganda. I have listened to many opponents of the Bill and none is answering the ‘how’ question.

Since the Bill is only hostile to landlords who seek to forcefully evict tenants, save for failure to pay ground rent, is Mengo then trying to tell us that the ‘Ssabattaka’ has plans of evicting some tenants in future for reasons other than failure to pay rent?

Are Mengo and its supporters telling us that the major landlord may in the future want to sell off his land without giving tenants the first option of buying? Or is Mengo merely playing the political hate card against President Museveni and his regime?

It is also on record that the same Mengo establishment once passionately opposed the 1998 Land Act whereas it is now turning around to say that the 1998 Land Act is sufficient and only needs rigorous implementation!

Ronald Leonard Egesa,
Kampala.

Published in the The Daily Monitor of Monday 30/Nov/2009 and the Weekly Observer of 03/Nov/2009