Zambia: Elsewhere in Africa

KUNDA WARNS HOMOSEXUALS

Last Updated: March 24, 2009

Source: Enerst Chanda (Sunday Post)

 

ZAMBIA – 24 March 2009: Vice president George Kunda on Friday charged in parliament that the government was aware of some people who had married to hide their homosexual activities.

Answering a question from Chadiza MMD member of parliament Allan Mbewe during the vice president’s question and answer session, on what government was doing to curb homosexuality in the country, vice-president Kunda said the laws available were stiff enough to punish such people.

 

When vice president Kunda stood up to answer the question, many members of parliament burst into laughter especially those from the executive’s side.

Vice president Kunda responded with a constant smile as more laughter and running comments resonated in the house.

“Zambia is a Christian nation and it shall continue to be so because it is part of our constitution. And acts such as homosexuality are not part of the Christian norm. In 2005, this house passed stiff laws against homosexuality. For people having carnal knowledge of each other against the order of nature the punishment is a minimum of 15 years imprisonment. If you have carnal knowledge of an animal you serve a minimum of 25 years”.

Vice president Kunda said, as a good number of parliamentarians said “yes, yes “ “ I know there are some prominent people in our society who are practicing homosexuality, some of them are engineers, some are lawyers and some are journalists.”

At this point there were shouts of “shame” and more laughter among many parliamentarians, including the vice president himself.

“If you have information about such people, report them to the law enforcement agencies. There are also some people who are bisexual and they marry to cover up their activities, but at the end of the day we know them,” said vice president Kunda as the laughter increased in the house.