GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL: GAY DEATH BILL HURTING ECONOMY

A senior Ugandan government official has warned that efforts to pass the dreaded Anti-Homosexuality Bill are damaging the country’s economy, according to a report by The Observer.

“I have never seen a country like this where politicians hurt the economy instead of building it,” Keith Muhakanizi, the Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, told a group of MPs in an informal debate about the bill outside parliament.

The newspaper commented that this was “the clearest hint yet that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which has stirred an unprecedented international uproar, is seriously hurting the country’s economy”.

Fox Odoi, a member of parliament’s committee on legal affairs, who wrote a minority opinion opposing the bill, dismissed arguments by another MP that it would protect the country’s morals.

He said that it would instead set a bad precedent by further legislating what happens in people’s bedrooms.

The bill is expected to be brought up for debate when lawmakers return from recess on 4 February.

The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, failed to fulfil her promise to pass the proposed legislation last year as a “Christmas gift” after lawmakers ran out of time ahead of the holidays.

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill allows for the death penalty in cases of “aggravated homosexuality” and includes criminal penalties for anyone who fails to turn over gay people to the police or who “promotes” homosexuality.

The bill has generated massive international condemnation; with a number of governments threatening to cut aid to the country should it be passed.

This past week, the University of Buckingham in the UK severed ties with Victoria University in Uganda over the bill.

The British institution said in a statement that it had “become increasingly concerned about the proposed legislation in Uganda on homosexuality and in particular the constraints on freedom of speech in this area” and thus decided to suspend its validation of courses at Victoria University.