Debunking lies: Protecting the ‘Boy Child’

 This I got from no authority other than Dr Sylvia Tamale. You remember, she wrote and gave this speech at the Dialogue.

It is not true that the Penal Code provision on "Aggravated Defilement" does not cover abused boys.  S. 129(3) clearly says: "Any person who performs a sexual act with another person who is below the age of eighteen years... commits a felony called aggravated defilement".  It does not limit it to girls.

Where do I catch out Ssempa and Bahati lying about that? Here we go.

The Broadcast that was taped and put on Box Turtle Bulletin. I have read through the transcript, and something like this springs out.

From Ssempa, it is muddled.

From Bahati, the same thing, put in more succinct language.

Bahati: Just in a second, just to emphasize what Pastor Ssempa has said, that actually there has been a lot of distortion, er on the clauses within the bill. Er, the pro-gay community picked on the death, the word death, in the bill, and just turned it around to attract sympathy in their country. We are not providing for death penalty for two adults, we are providing for death penalty to be consistent with the Defilement Act that we passed in 2007, er where an adult, engages, rapes, a minor of 18 years and below… (Ssempa: a girl) and when that adult has HIV/AIDS, or you are a guardian, you are a parent, you want to rape the kid that you are looking after, this is what we are proposing.

I am crossing out the unnecessary parts of that quote. Living the ones that are relevant to this post. I am debunking the lies one by one, this time I am focusing on the ‘protecting the boy child myth’. The law of the country, of Uganda, currently protects both boy and girl children. 

There is no deficit on the law about that.

Again, I will state it. Ssempa and Bahati say that their bill is providing providing equal protection for the boy and girl child. It is a matter of fact that the current law on ‘defilement’ or sex with a minor in Uganda covers both the boy and girl child.

Here is a letter that Ssempa wrote to Warren Throckmorton

The law was discriminatory in that the rape/sexual violence of a boy was not accorded the same legal protection as that of the girl.

This law simply provides for equal protection of the girl and the boy child.

Here, he repeats the same lie in his letter to Rick Warren. The text is here on the Throckmorton blog. And, here are the same words.

This time, this provision intends to provide equal protection of boys, among others.

The quote from Dr Tamale again. The proffesional opinion of a Ugandan Associate Proffessor of Law, at Makerere University in Uganda.

It is not true that the Penal Code provision on "Aggravated Defilement" does not cover abused boys.  S. 129(3) clearly says: "Any person who performs a sexual act with another person who is below the age of eighteen years... commits a felony called aggravated defilement".  It does not limit it to girls.

That is a favourite Bahati and Ssempa lie. It is a lie. SSEMPA, BAHATI, STOP LYING ABOUT THE BILL YOU WROTE.

How can they get that message? Again, it baffles me why Ssempa lies. It is a continuous, predictable thing with him. He lies, and lies, and lies. But, he is a 'man of god'. Why does Ssempa lie? I dont know.

Oh, dont tell me that he didnt know this fact. I was there in the dialogue when Sylvia Tamale presented her deconstruction of the bill. And, he wrote those things, has said them. It is his responsibility to fact check the things that he says so many times.

gug