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{UAH} MUSEVENI ORDERED FOR NULLIFICATION OF THE ANTI-GAY LAW

MUSEVENI ORDERED FOR NULLIFICATION OF THE ANTI-GAY LAW

Once again, Museveni has successfully demonstrated his hypocrisy to the unsuspecting international community and Ugandans in particular. He has achieved his intended goal for which he initiated the bill and made it law. He initiated the bill, helped it through parliament though irregular, assented to it and now he has annulled it. His intention was to to attract global attention, attack and humiliate the west, and to win domestic support. After he has assented to the law, Opondo his spokesman had this to say "Museveni wanted to demonstrate Uganda's independence in face of western pressure and provocation."

INITIATING THE BILL
Using his top Cadre Hon Bahati, Museveni initiated a private members bill in 2009 that sought to criminalise homosexuality with a death penalty. His usual functionaries moblised local support for the bill and at one time a huge procession comprised of religious clerics, cultural leaders and university students demonstrated through the streets of Kampala to the parliament where they presented their petition to the Speaker in support of the bill. Through a local daily, the Museveni government published a list of suspected homosexuals with their photographs. No action was taken against the said newspaper.

FIGHTING THE BILL 
Local and international human rights organisations and media houses plus western governments put up a spirited fight against the bill. The donor community threatened to sever relations though cutting of aid. A gay rights activist one David Kato was murdered in Kampala shortly after he had addressed the UN sponsored international conference on gay rights. The Ethics and Intergrity Minister Mr. Lukoda threatened to ban 38 NGOs accusing them of promoting homosexuality. Museveni's mouth piece, the Media Centre's Pamella Ankunda wrote an Editorial on 11/01/2010 over western democracy "It is unfortunate Uganda is now being judged on the accusations of opportunists whose ideals are based on violence and blackmail and even worse, on the actions of aid attached strings . It is regrettable that the government is pretentiously expected to observe their human rights, yet by their own actions, they have surrendered their rights to human rights."  Media Center Boss Ophono Opondo added "Uganda is being judged harshly."

MUSEVENI SLOWS DOWN
With this pressure from all corners, Museveni slowed down. The bill was brought forward from the 8th parliament to the 9th parliament with some major amendments. The death penalty had been dropped but other tougher penalties were retained.

9TH PARLIAMENT PASSES THE LAW
In October 2013, Rebeca Kadaga the Speaker of Parliament who also doubles as Museveni's assistant in charge of indoctrination in the eastern region, clashed with the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister over gay rights at a conference in Quebec. She told him off thus "Uganda is not a colony of Canada". She received a heroes reception upon return to Uganda from that conference. Shortly after, while addressing a press conference she stated thus "Ugandans want the bill as a Christmas gift. They have asked for it and we will give them that gift."
On 9th Dec 2013, parliament presided over by Kadaga hastly passed the bill into law. Prime Minister Mbabazi and Hon Aol Ocan raised the issue of quorum but the Speaker ignored them. Since it was a Museveni sponsored bill, it had to be passed without quorum. More so, at the time Speaker Kadaga and Prime Minister Mbabazi were not seeing eye to eye over the bid to succeed Museveni. 

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY REACTS
There was international condemnation of the law by individuals, organisations and governments. The donor community threatened to cut aid. Museveveni who at the time was in bed with the eastern block (Rusia, China, North Korea etc) got the international attention he so much craved for . The world waited for him to operationalise the law by assenting to it. He developed cold feet and claimed that he was consulting experts and urged the USA "I encourage the USA government to help us by WORKING with our scientists to establish whether indeed there are people who are born gay".

MUSEVENI ASSENTS TO THE LAW
Immediately after Christmas Museveni had sent his private army to the South Sudan. He sought to reinforce this move by assenting to the anti-gay law while at the same time  On 14th February 2014, at a colourful news conference convened at the International Conference Center (ICC), Museveni assented to the Anti-gay law. Later, on 24th February, in an interview with CNN while referring to homosexuals, he asserted thus " They are disgusting. What kind of people are they".  On criticism from the west, he stated "Respect African People and their values. If you don't agree just keep quiet. Lets manage our society, then will see. If we are wrong, we shall find out by ourselves, just the way we don't interfere with yours". 

DOMESTIC SCORE
A mass rally was held at the Kololo grounds in the heart of Kampala led by religious and cultural leaders to congratulate Museveni for having signed the law. Congratulatory messages from his cohorts continued to flow in from all corners of the country. Jubilations were led by mainstream churches and the evangelical pastors whom he has always duped into blindly backing his political survival games. Indeed locally he had scored. 

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY REACTS
Condemnations came from all corners of the world. The west cut aid at a time when his source of pride, OIL PRODUCTION had not commenced. The economic impact was immediately felt not by his family and cohorts but by the ordinary people. What troubled him most was the Political impact of the aid cut. He weighed it against the ever growing opposition. The law had dealt the much needed political blow on Speaker Kadaga's presidential ambitions but had raised his main challenger (Mbabazi)'s political card. Mbabazi had earlier raised the issue of quorum in parliamentHe was also mindful of the soft landing by exiled Gen. Ssejusa's moblisation efforts in the diaspora and the west. 

NULLIFYING THE LAW
Being the hypocrite that he has always been, he used his closest cohorts Andrew Mwenda and Fox Odoi to infiltrate the group of Lawyers and activists who were challenging the law in the constitutional court. The two aides together with his cadre judges acting on Museveni's orders ensured the success of the petition. The upholding of the petition has come at a time when he so much needed to travel to the USA to attend the USA-Africa summit. Sort of that, he had anticipated a lot of embarrassment and humiliation.
 Reacting to the court decision, Museveni has shamefully but joyfully stated that "I will consult the NRM caucus on way forward. Am sent the bills and I sign the. I dont look at how they were passed". His statement confirmed that the bill had been a brainchild of his NRM and not the parliament of Uganda. Also, that his NRM caucus is the defacto parliament of Uganda and the real parliament is a mere RUBBER STAMP to his decisions pushed into parliament through his NRM caucus. But again, the fact that he has confessed to signing bills without looking at how they are passed clearly confirms that he has a mental inability to run the country hence a ground of impeachment. 

CONCLUSION
From the aforesaid, it can be concluded that is a master of deceit and manipulation. He can eat his cake and have it. He duped his cohorts by signing the law and now he is seeking to fight off the brunt from the west. The government may appeal against the ruling but still he will give orders to the Supreme Court to uphold the earlier Court ruling after a long time. His NRM caucus may recommend that the bill be reintroduced in parliament and it passing will be deliberately delayed to buy time for resumption of aid, his 2016 presidential bid and denying the opposition soft landing. In the meantime he will claim that it is the courts of law that rejected the law thus 'in Uganda the Judiciary is independent'.
FOR HOW LONG WILL MUSEVENI CONTINUE TO FOOL EVERYBODY ALL THE TIME?

INFORMATION IS POWER.

Viele GruBe
Robukui

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