As Uganda awaits the passage of the new Anti-Homosexuality Bill, Speaker of the Parliament Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga, one the nation’s biggest political powerhouses, is ramping up her U.S. conservative-fed talking points. Her recent speech resulted in a headline in The Uganda Daily Monitor reading, “Gay groups targeting church leaders, schools – Kadaga.”
Speaking at the golden jubilee celebrations of St. Stephen’s Church in Uganda on November 30, Kadaga repeated the U.S. culture warriors’ claim that “computers and books donated to (underfunded and technology starved) schools are installed with software and literature that promote homosexuality in the institutions.” She went on to say, “Homosexuals are recruiting members of religious institutions,” and homosexuals are now “adopting” vulnerable children and turning them gay. “Be very careful because gays are here to distort our heritage. We have discovered that they adopt our children and confine them in gay communities abroad to train them on gay practices. By the time they come back home, they are already influenced by homosexuality and are used to influence others in the community,” Kadaga told her audience.
As Speaker of the Parliament, Kadaga’s words ought to be taken seriously. Being one of the most powerful people in Uganda, she holds the key to the new Anti-Homosexuality Bill which has potential to destroy countless families if passed into law.
Since coming to power in 2011, Kadaga has become the center of the government’s power structure and a fierce campaigner of anti-gay laws. In 2012, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird confronted Kadaga about Uganda’s record on human and sexual rights during the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Quebec, Canada. Kadaga rebuffed Baird’s pleas for a fair treatment of LGBTQ Ugandans, saying “If homosexuality is a value for the people of Canada they should not seek to force Uganda to embrace it. We are not a colony or a protectorate of Canada.” She went on to promise to pass the infamous Anti Homosexuality Bill 2009.
The original Anti Homosexuality Act (formerly known as the “Kill the Gays” bill) was signed into law in February of 2014, before being struck down by the court for a procedural violation during the Parliament’s vote. Since then, Kadaga has surpassed Uganda president Yoweri Museveni in her zeal to fight homosexuality and “protect” Uganda’s heritage.
But the power of Kadaga stems from her close ties with both the U.S. conservative evangelicals and anti-gay pastors such as Martin Ssempa. Aside from receiving conservative funding from U.S. culture warriors, these vitriolic pastors won’t rest until Kadaga gives them the new anti-gay law, which includes prison sentences up to 15 years for LGBTQ Ugandans, human rights advocates and straight allies.
Kadaga’s claim about computers and books being used to promote homosexuality are direct quotes from claims that have been made by U.S. conservatives such as Scott Lively and Lou Engle during their visits to Uganda.
In fact, Lively used this claim in 2009 to lobby Ugandan parents to reject UNICEF’s books. He later described the effort, saying “On the TV show we exposed a book distributed to schools by UNICEF that normalizes homosexuality to teenagers. (We expect a massive protest by parents, who are mostly not aware that such materials even exist in their country, let alone in their childrens’ classrooms.)”
Likewise, Lou Engle said Uganda must oppose UNICEF “at all costs.” And Sharon Slater, co-founder of Family Watch International, making similar accusations about the United Nations itself.
Moreover, Kadaga’s claim that religious leaders are being recruited by western homosexuals should not be viewed as something new either. The same claims were made during the now-infamous March, 2009, Anti-Gay Strategic Meeting at Triangle Hotel in Kampala. In October 2012, the court convicted six of Speaker Kadaga’s friends—among them were Martin Ssempa and Solomon Male—for character assassination of Ugandan Pastor Kayanja. Each were sentenced to either six months in prison or a fine of Shs1 million (about $400 U.S.) and 100 hours of community service. They all chose the latter.
Reading between the lines, there is another aspect to Kadaga’s claims—the changing religious landscape of Africa’s homophobia. After many unchallenged years of demonizing sexual minorities and human rights activists by U.S. culture warriors and their African allies, pro-human rights clergy are growing slowly on the continent. Many are realizing that the U.S.-born campaigns of demonization and violence against sexual minorities goes against their religious convictions. As the KwaZulu Natal Declaration showed, some African clergy opposed to the violent persecution of sexual minorities are now speaking out. In almost all Sub-Saharan African countries, religious voices against hate are slowly emerging. Since these leaders are preaching love and acceptance of sexual minorities as opposed to hatred, anti-gay pastors’ voices are now being challenged. To dismiss their critical voices, they are being branded as homosexuals themselves. African anti-gay pastors and their U.S. Right allies have entirely branded affirming Religious leaders such as Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo of Uganda, Revds. MacDonald Sembereka of Malawi, Benebo Fubara-Manuel of Nigeria, Michael Kimindu of Kenya, this author, and many others as homosexuals. Regardless, their numbers are growing—forcing anti-gay pastors and their Western allies into social panic.
Kadaga’s claim to have discovered Western homosexuals adopting African children and “confining them in gay communities abroad to train them on gay practices” is certainly a new low in her attempts to vilify LGBTQ people. Kadaga does not, of course, have any evidence for such claims—it is just another way anti-gay groups incite hatred against gay communities. African sexual minorities and their allies are also frequently accused of receiving “millions of dollars” to recruit people into homosexuality. The reality, however, being that the majority of LGBTQ people in Africa live in extreme poverty.
It is interesting that Speaker Kadaga, and not President Museveni, made these claims about LGBTQ Ugandans at this particular religious event—the space Museveni has usually used to demonize gays in the past. Does this suggest that Museveni would veto the new Anti Homosexuality bill?
Museveni may wish to veto the legislation when the Parliament inevitably passes it again—this time without the procedural mistake—in order to save face with the international community and preserve the country’s approximately $118 Million in foreign aid Uganda receives each year. With Kadaga on the helm, however, the Parliament could easily override the veto by simply passing the bill two more times. This backs Museveni into a no-win situation. As for Kadaga, she would emerge as a hero—as she did it in 2012, 2013, and 2014 when she used her position to challenge the West, pass the Bill and force Museveni to sign it into law.