Herbert Ssempogo
21 August 2007
Kampala — RELIGIOUS groups denounced homosexuality and its promoters at a rally in Kampala yesterday.
The Police stopped the groups from marching through the streets before the rally.
By 10:00am, protestors, mainly students, had pinned placards on the wooden fence at Kyadondo Rugby grounds.
"A man cannot marry a man," read one placard. "Uganda is not a dustbin. Do not accept their money," another added.
Protesters, dressed in red undergraduate academic gowns, rolled on the soggy ground as they called for an end to homosexuality.
"These foreign practices should not be entertained here," said Dennis Opio, 19, a student of Makerere Secondary School.
The protest, the first against homosexuality in Uganda, was organised by an anti-gays group, the Interfaith Rainbow Coalition Against Homosexuality in Uganda.
A week earlier, the gays had demanded recognition and full rights. The Constitution prohibits same sex marriages. The Penal Code makes homosexuality a criminal offence, punishable by life imprisonment on conviction.
Addressing the rally, ethics and integrity minister Nsaba Buturo said the Government would not change its anti-gay stand.
"God created Adam and Eve and urged them to go and reproduce. He did not command Paul to wed John or Maria to live with Esther and have children," he said, drawing applause.
The Government, Buturo added, will not tolerate anyone who lures others into lesbianism and homosexuality.
"They should not be allowed to pursue an agenda of indoctrinating our children to homosexuality," he said.
He cautioned the media against promoting gay interests. "Must press freedom be used to undermine one of the cardinal provisions of the laws?"
He said the Government was investigating reports that homosexuals had spread their influence to schools and that some victims had died.
One of the organisers of the rally, Pastor Martin Ssempa, of Makerere Community Church, had said a suspect died after being sodomised in Luzira Prisons in 2004.
In a memorandum handed over to Buturo, the coalition urged the Government not to grant homosexuals any rights and not to bow to pressure from foreign pro-gay organisations.
"Government should learn from the Church of Uganda, which has withstood international pressure and had to do without donor funds in order to uphold morality," the statement read.
Fr. David Kyeyune, the Rev Silver Arinaitwe and the Rev Ebert Mugarura represented the Uganda Joint Christian Council.
Pastors Solomon Male, Butch Dodzweit and Alex Mitala of the born again fraternity attended.
Sheik Mohammad Luwemba represented the Mufti Sheik Ramdhan Mubajje. Former MP Mpigi Rhoda Kalema also attended.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2007 New Vision. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
I do support that demo in the first place! Some times some of us sit and wonder wats going on in this world! Man on man, woman on woman, man on animals, child sacrifice to mention but a few! we need to pray for our nation Uganda! Yes the Western culture is good but not every thing! let us copy things like technology! but not things like Homosexuality! Am a teenager and i advise all teenagers out there to fight such acts in there communities! I thank Pastor Butch Dodzweit for taking part in the denounciation of such an evil act! I call upon the religious men and women of Uganda to pray for our nation before it runs mad!