Friday, June 16, 2023

Asumani Basalirwa of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023 Fame

 

Asumani Basalirwa, Member of the Parliament of Uganda, Bugiri Municipality, in the opposition, JEEMA Party. Famous for having introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023 to the Parliament, and he is quite invested in it. He has promised that if it is nullified, he will move it again.

He is famous. Been making the rounds, a celebratory lap of victory once the Bill became an Act. He should, he is famous. And it might be the only bill that he moves that becomes law…, after all, he is in the opposition.

Typical Ugandan legislator indeed. Though he seems to be feeling the heat, complaining that it is the press that keeps talking about the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023.., indeed. But, he has been talking to the BBC, Radio Deutche Welle and others. He is a politician.

And a liar.
Apparently he doesn’t have any idea about the American Right Fundamentalists visit.., [he says maybe because he is a Muslim!]. Well, I am not a believer.., but I know about the Family Watch International group conference in Entebbe which hosted a chunk of his MP colleagues and the President made the appeal to Africa to save the world from homosexuality. I wasn’t there, I am not a believer.., am not in parliament. I know the conference was there. Shame, a politician indeed.

A pawn of course-
Any member of the ruling NRM would have faced Museveni’s wrath for moving without permission. Technically he didn’t need the Executive to assent. The Inter-Religious Council for Uganda needed one.

He is a very proud legislator,
again and again, he reminds one in an interview that he is a legislator. But, typical Ugandan elitism, he believes that his legislative function is in a vacuum, where he ‘legislates’ and that’s all.
He says he doesn’t need to know how many people will be saved from homosexuality by the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023. Oh, he also doesn’t need to know how many people need legal aid, and he is bringing a bill to that end. Dear lawyer legislator, in this day and age, even I presume you need an estimate and a budget!

This is the guy who wrote the Bill to outlaw LGBTQ+ identity and he defined and criminalised ‘homosexual touch’!!!
Oh yes, read Asumani Basalirwa’s bill. It is in the annals of Ugandan history. According to what he wrote, even identifying as ‘Gay’ was enough to earn you prison.

As for the challenges to the HIV/AIDS program,
the proud legislators answers are informative. They are all a variety of ‘its doesn’t concern me’, ‘I am not to blame’, ‘Someone else should have checked’, ‘They didn’t tell me’, As I said, he is a mighty writer of the law, in the vacuum of his considerable experience.

And, he is of the elite of Uganda.
He doesn’t really care that life prolonging treatment of HIV for One million plus Ugandans was put at risk by his actions. Oh no, he goes for treatment to India or Turkey, or Dubai…, why the hell would he have to worry about his constituents who cannot fly out of the country for treatment?
Nope. He is a legislator, he doesn’t have to worry about any planning for the projected budget shortfall because of his bill. Others should do something.

Selfish, oriented to ‘I, myself, my concerns’, and that is all that seems to concern Asumani Basalirwa… Supremely ignorant and proud of not wanting to educate himself. A politician’s shrug of the shoulder, nothing concerns him, but what concerns him directly.

What a shining example of a legislator in Uganda!
Unfortunately, he is quite a good example of most of so called ‘Ugandan Elite’. Oh, they do call themselves that.

 

gug

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