Ugandan Ethics Minister

The Ugandan government's obsession with enforcing morality and protecting the country's cultural values has added a new twist: a nine-member anti-pornographic control committee.

The committee, which was sworn in Kampala in late August, is expected to stamp out pornography by collecting and destroying pornographic materials, and to apprehend and prosecute perpetrators. The committee will have a staff of between 30 and 40 people who will use a high-end 'machine' to detect the sharing of nude materials on mobile phones, computers, and television. This week the porn committee reportedly says messages of a sexual nature, or sexting, will also be defined as porn and attract punishment.

Simon Lokodo, Uganda's ethics minister, the minister, who has repeatedly denounced homosexuality and pornography, said the 'machine' will help stop one of the deadliest moral diseases in this country. Lokodo also claimed pornography was to blame for the increasing levels of drug abuse among the youth, teenage pregnancies, and abortion, according to the Daily Monitor newspaper. Pornography is now eroding Uganda's human resource, which, he said, will hinder the achievement of our vision.

Having nude photos on mobile devices in Uganda can land you in jail for up to 10 years under the country's nasty anti-pornography law, which parliament passed in 2014.

Arch moralist Simon Lokodo, Uganda's minister of 'ethics', told state-owned media that the country has bought an $88,000 pornography-detection machine from a company in South Korea. It will arrive in Uganda next month, he said.

Lokodo reportedly says it will be able to detect, control, and scrutinize porn on mobile handsets and other electronic devices.

The irony of spending tens of thousands of dollars on a pornography-detection machine in the face of competing needs that are arguably much more urgent was not lost on everyone. In particular, Uganda at one point earlier this year had no working radiotheraphy machines for cancer patients. A tweeter called Payizus tellingly commented:

The gov't of Uganda bought a porn detecting machine. The same gov't is still looking money to buy a cancer Machine. #Mbarara #CancerCharity

[Note that other reports say that the miniskirt prohibition was actually removed from the bill prior to being passed, but it was discussed as part of the law throughout the period when the bill was being debated.

Around 200 women took to the streets of Uganda's capital  defending their right to wear miniskirts. The demonstration came after the government approved a new law that bans indecent outfits for women.

The BBC reports that the demonstrators, some wearing now-forbidden miniskirts, gathered in Kampala to protest the draconian law, arguing it provides a free pass for sexual harassment and encourages blaming the victim.

The new rule is part of a piece of anti-pornography legislation that lists indecent show ... of sexual parts of a person for primary sexual excitement as a form of pornography, Ugandan newspaper Daily Monitor explains. And just in case that sounds confusing, The nutter Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo was on hand to clarify: If your miniskirt falls within the ambit of this definition then I am afraid you will be caught up by the law. Earlier, he added that this includes anything above the knee.

Activists say that since the ban became law there has been an explosion of vigilantes attacking and stripping women who they consider to be dressed inappropriately, according to Daily Monitor. We shall not allow women to pass on the road with skimpy dresses. Undressing them in public is the only way to stop them, one man told the newspaper.

Activist Patience Akumu, from campaign group End Miniskirt Harassment, told Voice of America that the government is letting mobs harass women over their clothing in order to score cheap political points in the conservative society. I think women have become an easy target, a scapegoat for all the problems, she added.

Ugandan MPs have passed a nasty anti-pornography Bill that will ban miniskirts and other clothing deemed to be sexually explicit.

The Bill, widely opposed as a threat to women's rights, could also see many films and TV dramas being banned. Opponents claim it would stop performers such as Beyonce and Madonna appearing on their television channels.

According to the Daily Monitor the anti-pornography Bill outlaws anything that shows sexual parts of a person such as breasts, thighs, buttocks or any erotic behaviour intended to cause sexual excitement or any indecent act or behaviour tending to corrupt morals.

The Bill needs to be signed by the president before becoming law.

The Ugandan parliament's has also made an abrupt decision to pass anti-homosexuality laws that would condemn same-sex couples to life in jail for mere touching,

The bill, rushed through by MPs, also bans the promotion of homosexuality and makes it a crime punishable by prison not to report gay people to the authorities or to conduct a marriage ceremony for same-sex couples.

The law was first introduced in 2009, when it advocated the death penalty, but after a worldwide outcry, that was removed from the final version .

The morality extremist MP who proposed the bill, David Bahati claimed:

This is victory for Uganda. I am glad the parliament has voted against evil. Because we are a God-fearing nation, we value life in a holistic way. It is because of those values that members of parliament passed this bill regardless of what the outside world thinks.

Frank Mugisha , a leading Ugandan gay rights activist, said:

This is a truly terrifying day for human rights in Uganda. It will open a new era of fear and persecution. If this law is signed by president Museveni, I'd be thrown in jail for life and in all likelihood killed. We urgently need world leaders to call on president Museveni and demand he stops this bill of hate from becoming law.

More than a million people have backed Mugisha's campaign on the petition website Avaaz to stop the laws.

Update: Presidentially unsigned

13th January 2013. See  article from  xbiz.com

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni is giving Ugandans a little hope by dragging his feet on signing a new anti-porn bill recently passed by the country's Parliament.

Update: Presidentially signed and quickly followed by mass arrests of gays

15th January 2013. See  article from  bbc.co.uk

Dozens of gay men are reported to have been arrested across northern Nigeria as police begin to enforce nasty new laws that criminalise same-sex marriages and membership of gay rights organisations.

The legislation, condemned by the US secretary of state, John Kerry, and human rights groups in Europe, has come into force shortly after the Ugandan parliament passed an Anti-Homosexuality Act.

Last week Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, signed the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, which provides penalties of up to 14 years in jail for a gay marriage and up to 10 years' imprisonment for membership or encouragement of gay clubs, societies and organisations.

Dorothy Aken'Ova, executive director of the country's International Centre for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights, said that the legislation, hailed the Jail the Gays law, had led to mass arrests. Police in Bauchi state, she claimed, had a list of 168 purportedly gay men, of whom 38 had been arrested.