Homosexuals, prostitutes, mini-skirt wearers an endangered species

by Ali Balunywa

Uganda is at it again as a government minister proposes the banning of miniskirts! Mr. Nsaba Buturo, the ethics and integrity minister says miniskirts should be banned because women wearing them distract drivers and cause traffic accidents.

According to the New Vision, a daily newspaper in Kampala, wearing a miniskirt should be regarded as “indecent”, which would be punishable under Ugandan law; Buturo told a press conference in Uganda’s capital Kampala last Wednesday. He riled against the dangers facing those inadvertently distracted by short skirts. “If you find a naked person, you begin to concentrate on the make-up of that person and yet you are driving,” he said.

Minister James Nsaba Buturo is a man with many wars to fight; prostitution, pornography, reality television shows and homosexuality. This week he unveiled a new weapon against prostitution; name the sellers - and buyers - in the media.

At the same press conference held at the government media centre in Kampala, Dr Buturo said the new strategy to curb what he said were growing cases of prostitution, was a "weapon of shame".

According to the daily Monitor newspaper, Dr Buturo warned; "We want to shame the public officials who even use government vehicles to buy prostitutes. We want to shame the husbands who go after these prostitutes and those running brothels. Their names will be published in print, television, Internet and other possible arena."

Dr Buturo said the government would involve the community and the Police to identify and shame the sex workers and their clients.

In a related development, last year Dr Buturo said the government is committed to stopping homosexuals who try to impose a strange, ungodly, unhealthy, unnatural, and immoral way of life on the rest of our society.

In 2005 Uganda became the first country in the world to introduce laws banning same-sex marriage. Section 140 of Uganda's penal code carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment for homosexual conduct, while Section 141 punishes 'attempts' at carnal knowledge with a maximum of seven years of imprisonment. Section 143 punishes acts of "gross indecency" with up to five years in prison, while a sodomy conviction carries a penalty of 14 years to life imprisonment.

In February last year, the Media Council - a state censorship board - banned a staging of the play, "The Vagina Monologues," by the US author Eve Ensler, because it "promotes illegal acts of unnatural sexual acts, homosexuality and prostitution."

As senior government officials are busy harassing gays and prostitutes on one hand, other government officials are busy robbing the treasury dry! What is interesting however, is that these people causing economic damage to the country do it with so much impunity that one wonders if it is not state sponsored. Otherwise, why should these men and women walk free, be promoted, allowed to keep their ill gotten wealth while gays and prostitutes fill up the prisons in the country?