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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Kenyan Matutu driver outsmarts Nigerian journalist on World Water Day 2010:

So it was the World Water Day 2010 celebrations in Nairobi. The theme for this year was water quality; makes a lot of sense since there are so many efforts focused on water availability.

So I was in town for the day. After the celebrations at UNEP in Nairobi, I and a group of journalists decided to take a Matatu back to town. The ride would have gone without incidence save for the continuous jokes by one of the Nigerian journalists, Fidelis, in the heavy traffic jam.

And an abrupt turn by the lady driver ahead of our Matatu that almost caused an accident. There was no bang, if anything it could have been just a scratch because the Matatu driver stopped so suddenly, my tall neighbor banged his head on the Matatu roof.

Immediately the driver (Kenyan of Indian origin) jumped out of her car and angrily scolded the taxi man. Somehow the driver was not arguing back, he was only trying to explain that she had turned so abruptly and the scratch was insignificant.

Meanwhile, we were holding up a lot of cars in the heavy jam, the cue seemed endless to the eye. Back inside the Matatu, Fidelis was making all sorts of comments. At one point he stood up to go and ‘help’ the Matatu driver, who according to him was doing nothing to assure the lady driver that she was the one in the wrong.

If anything he was making more noise than the Matatu driver but while inside the Matatu. Other passengers were smiling just enjoying the drama of the day, some were anxiously peeping out of the windows impatient to go.
I was listening to Fidelis and his talk of what he would do if only this had occurred in Lagos.

Suddenly, the Matatu conductor came and opened the boot and because I was in the back seat, I took it that he wanted to put in their some luggage. The driver of the Matatu also slowly got in his seat and within seconds we were racing up the street.

With all the cars out of the way by now we could have flown. On taking off I saw the confused lady driver trying to take a run a bit and then taking the photograph of the back of the Matatu but it was too late and too smooth.

So there was no case for the Matatu driver because the boot was open and there were no number plates to record on the mobile phone picture taken by the lady. Fidelis acknowledged that Yes the taxi conductor was smarter than him. And that is what I call smart. Happy World Water Day 2010! Be a smart water consumer get rid of water waste the only way to have quality water for consumption.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Homosexuality- what Ugandans say.

By Esther Nakkazi

Last week I went to cover a meeting ‘Coalition of human rights and the Constitutional law’ at Imperial Royale hotel in Kampala. Tempers flared, people spoke emotionally as they debated the anti-homosexuality bill.

The guest speaker was Professor, Makau Mutua, a scholar in law, gender and sexuality from Kenya. He spoke about human rights, why people are homophobic and tried to explain that there is no normal sexual orientation because whatever one has is normal to that individual.

Before I discuss this let me back up a bit on my neighbor from Spain, Anna Maria, who came to Uganda for a journalism fellowship under the International Federation Journalism (IFJ). She is a politics writer and is attached to one of the Ugandan daily newspaper, The Monitor.

Anna-Maria and her husband Ernesto (who speaks very little English) came to Uganda just about two months ago and they live on the apartment just above mine in Kiwatule.

One Tuesday morning, as is the normal practice with Anna-Maria we left home for work. We boarded a taxi (matutu -14 passenger seater) to go to work and as usual started talking about the yesterday activities. She had gone for one of the political party, Forum for Democracy Congress (FDC) press conferences and was making an assessment of the two party candidates Dr. Kizza Besigye and Maj Gen. Mugisha Muntu.

But at the press conference she said, she had missed an opportunity to ask a good question. Why was the opposition silent about the anti-homosexuality bill when these parties like FDC talk about promoting democracy, and human rights? Fair enough question but time was up by the time she raised her hand.

So we engaged in a talk about homosexuality in Spain. Deducing from her talk it was basically human rights respect. We were so deep into talk that I did not notice the silence that had engulfed the taxi, everyone in the 14 seater-commuter taxi listening in on our conversation.

In the front row in the matatu was a fat man who attentively listened to our conversation and he was irritated all the while because he suddenly turned and almost angrily asked Anna-Maria if she really thought it was proper to practise homosexuality.

In Uganda, we shall never accept it because ‘we have to protect the traditional family’, he said. His thoughts were not any different from the usual in Uganda. Africans are generally homophobic, Ugandans are not any different, the very few who are not have been either exposed, are open-minded or are both.

So Mr. X (the fat man)‘s next question to Anna-Maria was what would she do if her son married a man. At this time he really sounded irritated or angry and had now turned starring at her. Of course all the while she labored to explain about human rights to which he answered that in ‘countries’ like where Anna-Maria comes from they encourage people to become gay which made her raise her voice a little bit.

She tried to explain that if her son were gay that would be his choice she would never interfere but she definitely would not have encouraged him into it. His take on this was that if his son ever engaged in homosexuality, he would kill him. What! She was stunned. Okay at this point I thought we should just switch topics.

Why, there is mob-justice in Uganda, which she has no idea about and the last time an American reporter had an assignment about homosexuality at the same newspaper, she was almost deported. Fortunately we got to the stage where she alighted and immediately Mr. X turned to me and emphasized that in Africa we shall never allow homosexuality.

He also expressed a fear (common among many people) that if Uganda did not accept a bill that outlaws homosexuality, the greater part of the population would become gay. At the time I was alighting off the taxi to yet another day of hard work. First forward to last week’s meeting where Prof Mutua gave a brilliant talk explaining why homosexuality is a right, why being gay is termed ‘un African’ and giving reasons why Africans are homophobic.


During the discussions Odonga Otto a member of parliament made it very clear that, he was thinking and speaking like 90 percent of his colleagues in parliament, ‘MPs do not consider homosexuality a right and it will never be a right in their lifetime’ in Uganda. The author of the Bill, Bahati, is also of this position that homosexuality is not a right. Period. As the discussion progressed there was one basic issue, in this seminar mostly attended by lawyers and human rights activists, that Ugandans would not accept homosexuality as a human right.

During the workshop, there was a demand for a scientific explanation for homosexuality. Some participants in the meeting (MPs) let Prof Mutua know that if there was scientific evidence as to why people become homosexuals, then the debate would be different and they were convinced that it was a health problem.

Of course if there is scientific evidence, it is hard to come by, and if this will be the basis for MPs to pass the bill then they probably will, but there are hardly any studies that justify it as a health problem.

Also even if research was carried out it is unlikely that it would be done in Africa. But many people in Uganda think it is a habit, which is learnt, and as some Pastor alleged is motivated by money, ‘we can treat them psychologically and talk them out of the habit’ he concluded. Now here are some thoughts and observations on this issue: its true that homosexuality could have been practised among some African societies, and even in Uganda, who knows? But prior to this Bill no one seemed to mind it.

The community now feels that they are being oppressed and coarsed into knowing and debating homosexuality. Some lady who travels frequently for international meetings recently told me ‘it is not our agenda at all. We have more serious problems and I feel oppressed when I am exposed to homosexuality talk’. Many have echoed this, for a poor country like Uganda is it its agenda?

Secondly, the way different people debate and look at issues depends on a number of factors. The ability to just listen and allow debate on an issue without necessarily attacking or getting emotional is a preserve of very few human beings and neither does it follow the intellectual level of an individual.

Most of the fear expressed in Uganda is that when is not outlawed, half of Ugandans will become homosexuals! One explanation given for this is, in a country like Uganda, I guess just like in most of Africa, communities still thrive and someone is everyone’s business. The communalism and culture means society has established standards, if it does not fit it is judged wrong.

Which brings me to another point that was talked about by Prof Mutua, that homosexuality is considered ‘un African’. Mr. X asked Anna-Maria why do you people bring homosexuality here. Of course his idea was that she represents a whole race.

For the mere reason that apart from a few human rights activists, the people on one side telling Ugandans that the anti-homosexuality Bill is terrible are not Ugandans, so it comes off as forcefully imposing a position on a community, which has gained independence and thinks they can run their own affairs.

The threats and prominent presidents’ condemnations with all African presidents silent does not help matters. The Bill being a private members Bill, whose owner, an accountant, by far and large has failed to authoritatively defend it passionately is another matter. On one TV programme it was a total mess. This could help if there were Ugandans interested in not having it pass through but the ‘push’ factor. Bahati is not really audible about the anti-homosexuality bill.

I will say this again, the homophobia is intense but so is the push factor from outside. My feeling is that the Bill could never ever be passed, how many people would end up in prison, from churches, medical practioneers? But when the forces out of Uganda make it their point to crush it the insiders feel alienated from it and probably will have the more reason to not let outsiders dictate on how they conduct business.

Just like Anna Maria explained the more she lives in Uganda, the more she understands Mr. X’s reaction. There are so many factors that make society tolerate each other, but the key to all this is dialogue, which is still limited. In one of the traditional proverbs in Uganda they say people from the underground can never tell people living on earth how hot the temperatures are or how bright the sun is shining. They are from the underground!

The people on earth can figure out that actually hot temperatures are bad and decide to plant trees to cool it off, or they are good, when the people from underground insist they automatically become stubborn mules!

(This is what I have heard, seen, observed and also partly my opinions. It is interesting that a friend does not even want me to write about this topic, it is demonic she says! I am a Christian but enjoy debate and knowing what people think)
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