Buturo: A Ugandan Discussion

From an opinion piece in the Kampala Monitor, 11 September:

Corruption in Uganda has reached unacceptable levels. In a civilised nation, one would expect that law enforcement agencies would be useful in the fight against corruption. Now we know that the Police is one of the most corrupt institutions in Uganda…Some magistrates have also  been accused of forging court proceedings (for trials that never took place) leading to conviction of innocent persons at the behest of influential ‘clients’ who pay handsomely for the service…Parliament lost its respect when a large number of MPs in the 7th Parliament accepted a Shs5 million bribe to push through the obnoxious amendment that lifted presidential term limits…Now we run the risk of a military coup by a possibly opportunistic officer who would promise to rid the nation of corrupt people.

Fixing all this corruption is a tall order, but luckily Uganda has a designated Ethics and Integrity Minister, by the name of James Nsaba Buturo.

So what’s Buturo’s top priority?

“Who is going to occupy Uganda 20 years from now if we all become homosexuals. We know that homosexuals don’t reproduce,” James Nsaba Buturo told a press conference.

“There is now a globalisation of homosexuality and people in Uganda are attempting to take advantage of the globalisation,” he said. “It is an attempt to end civilisation. It is that serious.”

Buturo, a devout member of the Church of Uganda, part of the Anglican Communion, called for anti-gay legislation to be enacted.

I’ve blogged on Buturo’s anti-gay obsession before; his other ministerial efforts include banning The Vagina Monologues (“the idea was to promote lesbianism and glorify the vagina – even elevating it to god-like status”). Recently he called for mini-skirts to be banned on the grounds of “road safety”, resulting in a wonderful Monitor editorial entitled “Buturo Requires a Brain Transplant“:

Buturo said (and I assume he was not joking) that mini-kirts should be banned – because women wearing them distract drivers and cause traffic accidents! And, dear reader, I am afraid it gets worse, for he went on to say that wearing a miniskirt was like walking naked on the street!

Can you imagine a naked Mr Buturo walking along Kampala Road, manhood dangling and all of that? Well, you should try, because I assume he sometimes wears shorts, and the male equivalent of his comments is that Buturo wearing shorts is like Buturo walking naked on the street…

Buturo also recently unveiled a plan to tackle prostitution by “shaming” prostitutes.