Radical leftist Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni defiantly stood by his country’s harsh new law against people perceived as homosexual on Wednesday after the World Bank suspended new loans to Uganda.
Museveni accused the World Bank in remarks on Thursday of using financial pressure to force Ugandans to abandon their values.
“I want to inform everybody, starting with Ugandans, that Uganda will develop with or without loans,” Museveni said in a statement.
Activists hold placards during their picket against Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill at the Ugandan High Commission in Pretoria, South Africa on April 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
“With discipline, patriotism and combating corruption, we shall thrive because our agriculture is there, our industries are growing and our services sector is expanding. It is therefore unfortunate that the World Bank and other actors dare to want to coerce us into abandoning our faith, culture, principles and sovereignty, using money. They really underestimate all Africans,” Museveni said.
“I have patiently explained to some of the actors that merely being a homosexual is not targeted by this law. It is going from being a homosexual to recruit or coerce others into your deviance, that is targeted by the law,” he said.
“We do not need pressure from anybody to know how to solve problems in our society,” he declared.
The president met with Ugandan broadcasters on Thursday and urged them to “always be patriotic and avoid promoting the politics of identity.”
Museveni and his information minister, Chris Baryomunsi, said they are negotiating with the World Bank to reverse the loan freeze.
“However, the World Bank and others should be reminded that Uganda is a sovereign country, which takes decisions in the interests of her people, and this is the spirit of the Anti-Homosexuality Act,” Baryomunsi added.
Kenyan gays and lesbians and others supporting their cause wear masks to preserve their anonymity as they stage a rare protest against Uganda’s tough stance against homosexuality and in solidarity with their counterparts there, outside the Uganda High Commission in Nairobi, Kenya, on February 10, 2014. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Despite Museveni’s defiant statement, the Ugandan Finance Ministry on Thursday warned that government salaries will probably be affected by the World Bank funding halt.
“We took the firm decision and we agreed that we shall face the consequences. We shall be coming soon, I want to prepare your minds that very soon we are going to revise the budget and we shall be coming to you for support,” Finance Minister Henry Musasizi said in a presentation to the Ugandan parliament.
Economist Fred Muhumuza told Voice of America News (VOA) on Wednesday that the World Bank’s huge loans “cannot easily be replaced by other funders.”
“When the World Bank gives you a loan and you put it in your central bank in dollars, you begin to convert it to local currency. So, that stabilizes the shilling, because you have some sufficient dollars that people who need to import things can use. So, if the World Bank loans don’t come through, then we might see pressure on the exchange rate as well going upward,” Muhumuza explained.
A gay Ugandan man holds a pride sign as he poses for a photograph in Uganda Saturday, March 25, 2023. (AP Photo)
The Financial Times pointed out that Uganda “relies heavily” on the World Bank for “financing for infrastructure projects, social services and capital investment.”
Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 into law on May 29. The law imposes much harsher penalties for “engaging in acts of homosexuality” than previous statutes, including the death penalty in cases of “aggravated homosexuality.”
The law was condemned by human rights groups and numerous world leaders, including President Joe Biden, who threatened to cut off aid and investment to Uganda unless the “tragic violation of universal human rights” was repealed immediately.
“This shameful Act is the latest development in an alarming trend of human rights abuses and corruption in Uganda,” Biden said.
Hundreds of Ugandan students marched in support of the law after Biden’s threat, chanting “we don’t want your pro-gay money.”
The World Bank on Tuesday announced that no new loans would be made to Uganda until the Anti-Homosexuality Law is substantially revised or repealed.
“Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act fundamentally contradicts the World Bank Group’s values. We believe our vision to eradicate poverty on a livable planet can only succeed if it includes everyone irrespective of race, gender, or sexuality. This law undermines those efforts. Inclusion and non-discrimination sit at the heart of our work around the world,” the World Bank said.
Ugandan MP John Musila wears clothes with an anti-LGBTQ message as he enters the Parliament to vote on a harsh new anti-gay bill, on March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Ronald Kabuubi)
Museveni has asked other African leaders to join Uganda in resisting the Western world’s “promotion of homosexuality,” framing the debate as a test of sovereignty for African nations.
The Financial Times reported that Russia is using the controversy to “win favor among African leaders” by portraying Russia’s “attitudes to issues of sexuality as being closer to African norms.”
Putin’s Victory Day speech in May included criticism of Western nations for “destroying traditional family values that make a person a person” and “dictating their will to others.”
Museveni’s son Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is a general in the Ugandan army, said in April that Uganda would send troops to defend Russia if it was attacked by the “imperialists” of the United States and NATO.
The son of Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, Major General Muhoozi Kainerugaba attends a ceremony in which he was promoted from Brigadier to Major General. (PETER BUSOMOKE/AFP via Getty Images)
“In Africa, we only believe in President Putin when it comes to Eastern Europe. The West is wasting its time with its useless pro-Ukraine propaganda,” he said.
Although Western media began describing Uganda as a “conservative” country after the Anti-Homosexuality Law was passed, Museveni is a Marxist-Leninist authoritarian. He has ruled Uganda since 1986 under a system he describes as “no-party democracy,” because every Ugandan supposedly belongs to his left-wing revolutionary National Resistance Movement (NRM) from the moment they are born. He began marketing himself as a “neo-liberal reformer” after his first decade in power, but critics say he is still a communist to the core.
Museveni is an outspoken admirer of the Chinese Communist Party, whose support has been crucial to maintaining his grip on power. He has also curried favor with Iran, whose President Ebrahim Raisi expressed support for Uganda’s anti-LGBT law in July and commended Museveni for standing up to Western pressure.
“The Western countries try to identify homosexuality as an index of civilization, while this is one of the dirtiest issues,” Raisi said after visiting Uganda. “The West today is trying to promote the idea of homosexuality, and by promoting homosexuality they are trying to end the generation of human beings.”
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi poses for a photograph with children upon his arrival at Robert Mugabe airport in Harare, Zimbabwe, Thursday, July 13, 2023. Iran’s president is on a rare visit to Africa as the country, which is under heavy U.S. economic sanctions, seeks to deepen partnerships around the world. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)