Your Excellency,
I have read your statement on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill that is soon to be enacted into law in my country in Uganda and I respect you for this response. I am however taken aback by the kind of double standards that you and your administration continue to shamelessly portray in diplomatic relations with other countries especially in Africa and the Middle East. I will focus on Uganda for now.
Your statement opens with how the “United States has consistently stood for the protection of fundamental freedoms and universal human rights. We believe that people everywhere should be treated equally, with dignity and respect, and that they should have the opportunity to reach their fullest potential, no matter who they are or whom they love.“ I fully support this virtue and applaud you for it. What I have an issue with is your country’s continuous habit of applying it as and when it benefits you or your PR driven agendas.
Two years ago, the EU and other donor countries responded to Massive theft of donor money in the Office of the Prime Minister of Uganda, meant for development and rehabilitation projects in poverty stricken former war ravaged areas. They froze their funds and demanded reforms and reimbursement of the stolen funds. As usual, we the taxpayers picked the tab. Your country kept silent about it as it has about other high level corruption scandals in this country.
Since the 2011 Elections, the Uganda Police under the NRM administration has constantly harassed members of the opposition with “preventive arrest”, an obnoxious act of the colonial days, spraying them with tear gas, poisoned pepper spray, denying them the freedom of assembly that is clearly stated in the constitution. The government has cut off all funding channels for other political parties in the country. Last year, the ruling party pushed through a ridiculous law in Public Order Management Law and the president assented to it to primarily clamp down the activities of the opposition leaders and their supporters. To this day, your country has been silent about all these injustices.
So Mr. President, forgive me if I don’t take you seriously when you say that your country stands for the protection of fundamental freedoms and Universal Human rights. Allow me to say that you kept silent because of the strategic security and militaristic relationship between your country and mine, which ordinary Ugandans and Americans alike know nothing about.
I personally have my reservations about the Anti-Gay Bill but I will keep them to myself. On principle, allow me not to take you seriously when you say that the enactment of this legislation will complicate your valued relationship with Uganda. Let’s be honest, the relationship will only get complicated when Uganda refuses to agree to fight your wars on your behalf as we see in Somalia, South Sudan and CAR. That’s the only possible reason. Else, Uganda will remain a sovereign dictatorship and you will do nothing about it. So do not pretend to care about oppressed Ugandans when you have watched on for years as worse injustices have happened. The Gay issue should be as sensitive as the battering, wrongful arrest and harassing of any dissenting voices in the country by the state machinery. Unless of course you are implying that the rights of Gay people are a special kind of rights as compared to the straight people. Rights are rights and they should be protected and respected across the board.
Be informed that the same Uganda Police Force which you kept quiet about as they carried on their excesses against political dissent in this country is the same police that will be hunting down the Gays as soon as the bill is assented to. Maybe now you realize you should have spoken earlier. Good luck on trying to intimidate the president into not signing the bill.
(The Author of this Letter prefers to keep Anonymous. This Blog is privileged with the opportunity to publish it.)
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