Gays Are Easy Targets For Macho Leaders

From The East African, Oct. 4-10, 1999

By Charles Onyango-Obbo

The broomsticks are out, and the hunt for homosexuals is on in Uganda. President Yoweri Museveni launched an attack on homosexuals last Monday, and announced that he had ordered Police to crack down on the "unnatural" and "criminal" practice.

A day later President Daniel arap Moi added his voice to the issue, and for a brief period the prospect of a new wave of East African harmony seemed at hand, given that the Kenyan president and Museveni rarely have a near-perfect consensus on most issues. But no, this hunt for homosexuals is about local, not regional politics.

Word in town was that the Police swung into action against homosexuals, but no arrests had been made. I don't know about Kenya, but the results of a census of homosexuals in Uganda would be disappointing. There are gay people around, but the most reliable reports indicate that they are very few.

That is why the question of gays is attractive to political leaders in Uganda. It is a matter about which the president, for example, can't do anything even if he wanted to - because it is not a big issue. He just has to condemn it, and the people will rally to his side. An opinion poll in the government-owned New Vision, not surprisingly, reported that 81% of the people interviewed were against homosexuality.

By mid-week, a president who had been pilloried over the last nine years for not doing much against run-away corruption was being credited with offering the firmest "moral leadership" the country has ever had. Gay bashing is one of Uganda's big bi-partisan issues. All sides of the political and religious divide tend to condemn it.

And on this one, unlike the DR Congo military adventure, no opposition politician will dare criticise the president. On Friday Muslims, who have been at odds with Museveni in recent years alleging that this government is biased against them and treats all members of the community as if they were linked to Sudanese-backed Ugandan rebels, found common cause with him on homosexuality. Muslim women staged a protest match against homosexuality and general moral decadence in the country.

The link between homosexuality and the spiritual condition of Uganda is very political. Nearly everyone agrees that the state of public and private morality in Uganda are in a shambles. What they don't agree is who to blame.

On one side, is the historical view, which says the mess in Uganda today is just an accumulation of ills of the last 40 years; the cruel advance of western capitalism and cultural influence; and the well-documented tendency of the country to self-destruct.

If you buy into this latter view, then you accept that this is not the fault of the government.

So, like First Lady Janet Museveni is always exhorting the nation, you either pray to God to save the motherland, or take it that people like president Museveni should not be blamed because Uganda is cursed, but somehow it will muddle through like it did through the bad old days.

On the other side, there are those who blame the government, saying its thieving and adulterous officials and political leaders have set a bad example for the nation. People who blame the rot on the failure of government leaders would want to punish it at the next election.

In Zimbabwe when President Robert Mugabe went gay-bashing, he was preparing the country for his second marriage. He managed to make the point that however much people criticised his marriage to his much younger secretary and the extravagant wedding, it was still a far better alternative than being gay. Since Museveni has been looking happily married, perhaps then his eyes are on an election? There are two votes around the corner; the referendum next year and the general elections thereafter.


©1999Charles Onyango-Obbo & Worldwide EP. All rights reserved.