Harriette Onyalla
2 July 2008
Kampala — East African health ministers should endorse a regional plan on sexual and reproductive health and rights, advocates have said. The ministers last year approved the 77-page regional strategic plan for 2008 to 2013 in Arusha, Tanzania, but turned around five months later.
The five ministers from Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania reportedly made the U-turn for fear that the issue of sexual rights indicated in the document was not definite and could be exploited by homosexual rights activists.
"We do not want to deny anyone their rights but when it comes to abortion and homosexuality, we definitely object to that. These are against our laws and our cultures," health state minister Dr. Richard Nduhuura told The New Vision on Tuesday.
But Lydia Wanyoto, a member of the East African Legislative Assembly, said that was not enough to reject the plan.
"They should list the rights they want or don't want instead of taking us back to the drawing board.
"Nobody wants homosexuality because it is not in our cultures. But if women go to a health centre and don't find an operational theatre and gets birth-related complications, this should be a violation of her right to health."
She also accused the ministers of wasting public funds.
"They spent taxpayers' money to deliberate on the plan before they passed it. Hardly six months down the road, the same ministers spent more taxpayers' money to revoke the same plan."
Dr. Peter Ibembe, the national programme manager of Reproductive Health Uganda, said the plan could still be implemented in accordance with the laws of individual member countries.
"Rights have to be adopted in a social and cultural context to promote national harmony, norms and laws. You might say that you have a right to food but that does not permit you to steal."
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