{{American President Barack Obama has warned that his country and Uganda\u2019s relationship would be \u201ccomplicated\u201d if President Museveni assents to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.}}<\/p>\n
A statement from the White House in Washington quoted Mr Obama as saying that the bill will \u201ccomplicate our valued relationship with Uganda\u201d, adding: \u201cThe Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda, once law, will be more than an affront and a danger to the gay community in Uganda. It will be a step backward for all Ugandans and reflect poorly on Uganda\u2019s commitment to protecting the human rights of its people. It also will mark a serious setback for all those around the world who share a commitment to freedom, justice and equal rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Obama\u2019s Sunday warning came a day after President Museveni announced at the NRM party\u2019s parliamentary retreat in Kyankwanzi that he would assent to the Bill after a presentation by Ugandan scientists concluded that homosexuality is not natural.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is on the strength (that people are not homosexuals by genetics) that I am going to sign the bill,\u201d President Museveni told the MPs. \u201cI know we are going to have a big battle with the outside groups about this but I will tell them what our scientists have to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whereas Parliament had passed the Bill in December, President Museveni was hesitant to assent to it, first citing the lack of quorum on the day it was passed but later indicating that he needed a scientific explanation on whether homosexuality was a natural condition.<\/p>\n
Barely 24 hours after his Kyankwanzi pronouncement, the President was already facing the \u201cbattle\u201d with the American National Security Adviser, Ms Susan Rice, calling Mr Museveni to express her government\u2019s and Mr Obama\u2019s reservations on the matter.<\/p>\n
According to the Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary, Ambassador James Mugume, the Americans had called to offer \u201cfurther evidence\u201d that homosexuality is a natural behaviour in contradiction with what the local scientists had presented.<\/p>\n
agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{American President Barack Obama has warned that his country and Uganda\u2019s relationship would be \u201ccomplicated\u201d if President Museveni assents to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.}} A statement from the White House in Washington quoted Mr Obama as saying that the bill will \u201ccomplicate our valued relationship with Uganda\u201d, adding: \u201cThe Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda, once law, will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000050420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-12612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000050420,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12612.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12612.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12612.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12612.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12612.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12612.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000050420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12612"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=12612"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=12612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}