The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Thomas Tayebwa, has said he has received “painful” stories regarding the increase of same sex relationships in schools.
“Colleagues, I am getting painful, gruelling stories. When you talk to doctors, you again know how deep it is. Many of the people are dying in silence but it seems our schools have been penetrated completely. Not only schools, it seems recruitment centres are very open. It is extremely painful. We are not completely in charge of our children,” he said during plenary yesterday.
He added: “I talked to one student personally and he told me that in one of their schools, you cannot move around in the compound at night. He is from a male school, one of the prominent male schools. He told me that, “you fear being grabbed and sodomised”.”
Mr Tayebwa tasked the Parliament’s Committee on Education to probe the matter expeditiously and report back to the House with its findings.
“Some of the children and parents are dying in silence. So, the Committee on Education, this is a matter you have to give urgent priority. It is an issue that we must tackle head-on without fearing anyone,” he said.
The Deputy Speaker added that if the matter isn’t dealt with urgently, the next generation will be destroyed.
“The moment you finish our children, we no longer have anything. We hope [the response from the Education Committee] can be quick and we see how best to work or support the government whether to include more funding, patrolling all these entities to re-tool, do whatever we can to ensure that we save humanity and our country,” he said.
Ms Sarah Opendi, the Tororo District Woman MP, said: “It is extremely unfortunate that a Godly country like Uganda can sit back and see various NGOs (non-governmental organisation) promoting an act that is against the order of nature. We have had NGOs like the Sexual Minorities Uganda. Their activities, offices were known. The NGO board suspended the activities of this NGO but we have another one calling themselves a consortium of these NGOs dealing with the same activity.”
Issue
She added: “The Ministry of Gender has been following up on these matters. There is a matter in court regarding the Sexual Minorities Uganda [but] even courts are being threatened. The case cannot progress.”
Mr Nsaba Buturo (Bufumbira County East) said the foundations that anchor the country are slowly being eroded away.
“And if we don’t do something drastic, the country will be taken away from us and we shall be in more trouble,” he said.
Mr Gilbert Olanya (Kilak South County) recommended that the Speaker form an adhoc committee to specifically handle the matter.
“The Committee on Education is quite overwhelmed. They have so many Bills [to handle yet] this is very urgent. I would like to request the Right Honourable Speaker if it is okay to form an adhoc committee to handle the issue,” Mr Olanya said.
In response, Mr Tayebwa said he would do further consultations to see how to best to guide on the matter.