Tayebwa mustn't distract Ugandans from a wanting parliament

Uganda has thousands of problems sprouting from the malignant military dictatorship which has failed to articulate a prescience and attract relevant expertise to translate the same into practice.

As a result, the country has suffered innumerable gross human rights abuses, corruption, misuse of power, environmental degradation, lack of accountability and transparency, porose institutions, impoverishment, indebtedness and among others.

It is quite discombobulating that the deputy speaker of parliament, in an effort to woo the support of the homophobic religious groups of self-appointed moralists whose standards of behaviour are in fact questionable, is using the homosexuality talk as though it is the biggest problem in this cow-ntry rather country.

To begin with, this 11th parliament is composed of the majority malingerers who avoid, evade or shirk their responsibilities as legislators and instead carry on the obsequious job of sanitizing the rogue junta which is governing the country outside of the legal and constitutional framework.

They rarely attend parliamentary sessions to vote on important legislation which represents the interests of their constituents but fill up the house when called to be errant egoists. As a negative consequence, what is supposed to be democracy has transmuted into Musevenocracy and the legislative ability to hold the executive branch accountable and to make effective laws has been forgotten.

Their gross dereliction of legislative duty has led to a loss of public trust in the political process and a lack of confidence in elected officials. The egregious attendance records, shallow and useless debates and opulence is a prima facie evidence of parliament's inefficiency. In serious countries, there are significant sanctions for malingering, such as fines or disqualification from holding a public office. But in ours we praise incompetence and detest competence.

If citizens were civically woke, they would keep an eye on their representatives and hold them accountable for their incompetence in order to ensure that the parliament is working effectively and efficiently but the legislators are taking advantage of their constituent's ignorance and illiteracy.

Dereliction of legislative duty has made people believe that the work of a parliamentarian is to buy ambulances, fork out money for condolences and weddings, buying food for the starving population and among other patronage schemes whose aim is opportunistically targeting the next election.

Failure to make effective laws and perform proper oversight of the executive branch and also conduct effective investigations, has given the junta machismo to stay in power.

Ugandans, including homophobic leaders like Hon Thomas Tayebwa must be taught that advocating for gay rights does not necessarily mean that a person is gay. As a deputy speaker of parliament he must know that protecting the rights of Ugandans is the work of parliament and the rights of gays are also human rights.

Ugandans of all sexual orientations must support equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. Us who advocate for gay rights do so because we believe that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their sexual orientation. We also believe that laws and policies that discriminate against LGBT people are unjust and should be changed.

It's worth noting that many straight people like myself, including allies, advocate for gay rights. We support the rights and equality of the LGBT community, not because we identify with that community, but because we believe that it is a moral and fair thing to do.

What is morally questionable in our beliefs should not attract criminalisation, prejudice and hate after all there are several things that are moral but illegal.

Almost half of the revenue collected is lost to corruption and the country is heavily indebted because of our budget that is highly dependent on borrowing and donations but the parliament which is feigning morality has not seen that as an urgent issue which is plunging the country into the abyss of impoverishment but they are busy getting concerned with the private affairs of adults!

Advocating for gay rights is not an indication of a person's sexual orientation, it is an indication of a person's belief in equality and justice for all individuals.

Discrimination and prejudice against individuals based on their sexual orientation is a human rights issue that affects many people. It is important to work towards creating a more inclusive and accepting society for all individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation.

The author is a Ugandan novelist exiled in Germany