Stop wasting our time – Museveni tells Western countries

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has asked the West to mind their business and stop “wasting the time of humanity” by trying to impose gay rights on African nations.

The president was speaking in an address to parliament ahead of a vote on a new anti-LGBT that will give stiffer punishment to people who engage in same-sex activities. Offenders could face up to 10 years in prison if the new bill is passed.

Oryem Nyeko, a researcher with Human Rights Watch speaking on the new bill said “One of the most extreme features of this new bill is that it criminalizes people simply for being who they are as well as further infringing on the rights to privacy, and freedoms of expression and association that are already compromised in Uganda”.

She urged Ugandan politicians to rather turn their attention to making laws that protect vulnerable groups saying, “Ugandan politicians should focus on passing laws that protect vulnerable minorities and affirm fundamental rights and stop targeting LGBT people for political capital”.

However, Museveni who is against the idea of legalizing gay rights in the country said no one should try to impose their culture on Africans.

“Western countries should stop wasting the time of humanity by trying to impose their practices on other people,” he noted.

“Europeans and other groups marry cousins and near relatives. Here, marrying in one’s clan is taboo. Should we impose sanctions on them for marrying relatives? This is not our job,” Museveni asked rhetorically.

Human rights groups working in Uganda have criticized Uganda’s laws on gay rights.

According to Human Rights Watch, the new bill will punish anyone who “holds out as a lesbian, gay, transgender, a queer, or any other sexual or gender identity that is contrary to the binary categories of male and female,” with a prison term of up to 10 years.