KAMPALA – Uganda President Yoweri Museveni has told off the West after the US issued an advisory to businesses against investing in Uganda citing the anti-LGBTQ law.Â
Museveni said Europeans will not arm-twist him in governing the country and dealing with homosexuals.
“I really feel sorry for Europeans, they have been misusing their opportunities, they come to tell me how to organise elections. How to organise elections? I am the expert on elections, you can call me to help you. They also tell me how to handle homosexuals, please, I know how to handle homosexuals, leave me alone!” Museveni said.
He was officiating the fourth Youth Business Forum and Expo at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds.Â
The Ugandan leader also added that given that he speaks in English – not Chinese, Russian, Turkish or Hindi – he can easily work with Europeans, only if they are disciplined.
The President was speaking after the Departments of State, Labor, Health and Human Services, Commerce, and USAID on Monday warned businesses, organizations, and individuals of potential financial and reputational risks resulting from endemic corruption and violence against human rights activists, media, health workers, members of minority groups, LGBTQI+ persons and political opponents.
“Uganda’s enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) on May 29, 2023, further increases restrictions on human rights, to include restrictions on freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly and exacerbates issues regarding the respect for leases and employment contracts,” the statement said.
“The 2023 Investment Climate Statement warns investors about risks related to endemic corruption and the lack of respect for human rights in Uganda. In addition, the 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Uganda provides additional detail regarding restrictions by the Government of Uganda on an independent legislature and the lack of commitment to fair trial guarantees, as well as elite capture of critical institutions, including the military and police,” the advisory said.
Since the enactment of the law that has been described as among the harshest against LGBTQ community in the world, in May, President Museveni has remained adamant that he will not be moved to review the act.
“The signing is finished, nobody will move us,” Museveni said during a meeting with legislators from the National Resistance Movement party in May after criticism from US President Jow Biden.
“The problem is that, yes, you are disoriented. You have got a problem to yourself. Now, don’t try to recruit others. If you try to recruit people into a disorientation, then we go for you. We punish you.
“But secondly, if you violently grab some children and you rape them and so on and so forth, we kill you. And that one I totally support, and I will support,” he added.
After World Ban suspended funding to Uganda in August, Museveni said said Uganda would find alternative sources of credit, adding that the country was in fact trying to reduce borrowing. He said his government would not give in to pressure from foreign institutions.
“It is, therefore, unfortunate that the World Bank and other actors dare to want to coerce us into abandoning our faith, culture, principles and sovereignty, using money. They really underestimate all Africans,” he said.
The law provides harsh punishment for homosexuals, including the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”.
The law also stipulates capital punishment for “serial offenders” against the law and transmission of a terminal illness such as HIV-AIDS through gay sex, and decrees a 20-year sentence for promoting homosexuality.
