Kill the gays bill is back

A Ugandan army officer has successfully brought a motion in Parliament which will have the Anti Homosexuality Bill 2009 re-tabled, without having to consult Cabinet

The officer, Sarah Mpaabwa, an army representative in Parliament said all bills and reports that were shelved in Uganda’s eighth Parliament should be saved and re-tabled for discussion.

Uganda’s parliament has 333 MPs and is the only parliament in East Africa that has serving army officers as members. The government insists that army officers add value to parliament and bring stability to the country’s politics.

The passing of the motion means that David Bahati, the legislator who tabled the globally infamous “kill the gays” bill will not require Cabinet’s approval to table the anti-homosexual bill again.

The Ugandan Cabinet recently said that it had rejected the bill, tabled by as private member’s bill. But Bahati quickly reminded Cabinet that they had no powers over his bill, because it was a property of the Parliament of Uganda, and not the Executive.

Under normal rules of procedure, Bahati should have presented his bill to cabinet first, and also to the Ministry of Finance to obtain a certificate of financial implications of what it can cost government is the bill is passed into law, before a re-tabling.

Stephen Tashobya, Chairperson of Uganda’s Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, told Behind the Mask on Wednesday October 26 that Parliament will soon meet to consider when to draw an order of schedule in which bills left-over from the previous Parliament will be a priority for the executive.

He could not however say whether the Bahati bill is a priority for the executive. He said, “All bills from the previous parliament shall continue, without going back to the executive for re-introduction.”

He added, “Then what will follow is a meeting of the business committee to draw the agenda and prioritise which bills to discuss, depending on the priority needs of the executive.”

A member of gay rights group, Uhspa Uganda attached to the Parliamentary Press said on condition of anonymity that the motion means that respective line ministers will re-table the bills so that reports and recommendations from the work of committees from the previous parliament work as working documents, without repeating what has already been covered by Parliament as an institution.

He declined to give a time frame within which the business committee shall meet.

A number of bills were shelved in the last parliament including the HIV/Aids Control Bill 2010, the Anti Counterfeit Bill and the Anti Homosexuality Bill amongst others.

By Kikonyogo Kivumbi