Uganda announced Monday (May 29) that President Yoweri Museveni had signed into law a bill outlawing homosexual sex and threatening quote unquote promoters ‘of homosexuality’.

The bill that stirred controversy outside Uganda was overwhelmingly passed by lawmakers in the East African nation in early May. The legislation’s sponsors celebrated its signing.

“I want to confirm to you that what was a bill, is now an act of parliament called the Anti-homosexuality Act 2023,” Asuman Basalirwa said, all smiles.

The passage of the anti-gay bill comes after warnings from Uganda’s international partners, including close ally the United States, of repercussions should the controversial proposal become law.

MP Asuman Basalirwa who sponsored the legislation was unfazed.

“I am ready to champion the cause of going to the Arab world to look for donor support. The Arab world, we will go to Saudi Arabia, we will go to Kuwait, we will go to Qatar, we will go to UAE, and this deficit which will be occasioned by these cuts can easily be replaced.”

Uganda’s parliament said on Twitter that Museveni had approved a new draft of the legislation that was passed overwhelmingly by lawmakers in the East African nation earlier this month.

“If you perform a sexual act with a person of the same sex, then you have committed the offence of homosexuality. And what is the punishment? Imprisonment for life. When you carry out acts of homosexuality through force or duress or undue influence, then the law defines that as aggravated homosexuality. And what is the punishment? The maximum punishment is death. Under this law, consent is not a defence. You cannot for example argue that X, who is an adult, consented with Y. Why are you bothered? The law is saying that the fact that you have consented is in itself not a defence”, Asuman Basalirwa said.

Outside pressure

MPs had vowed to resist outside pressure over the bill, which they cast as interference in an effort to protect Uganda’s national culture and values from Western immorality.

Museveni had called on parliament to rework the bill, although most of the hardline provisions that caused an outcry in the West were retained.

The amended version said that identifying as gay would not be criminalised but “engaging in acts of homosexuality” would be an offence punishable with life imprisonment.

Although Museveni had advised lawmakers to delete a provision making “aggravated homosexuality” a capital offence, lawmakers rejected that move, meaning that repeat offenders could be sentenced to death.

Uganda has not resorted to capital punishment for many years.

The UN Human Rights Office — whose commissioner Volker Turk in March described the bill as “among the worst of its kind in the world” — condemned its passage into law.

But the legislation enjoys broad public support in  majority Christian Uganda, which has pursued among the toughest anti-gay legislation in Africa where around 30 nations ban homosexuality.

Concerns of the people

“As Parliament of Uganda, we have heeded the concerns our people and legislated to protect the sanctity of family,” the assembly’s speaker Anita Among, one of the bill’s strongest proponents, said in a statement.

“We have stood strong to defend the culture, values and aspirations of our people.”

The revised bill said “a person who is believed or alleged or suspected of being a homosexual, who has not committed a sexual act with another person of the same sex, does not commit the offence of homosexuality”.

An earlier version also required Ugandans to report suspected homosexual activity to the police or face six months’ imprisonment.

Lawmakers agreed to amend that provision and instead the reporting requirement pertained only to suspected sexual offences against children and vulnerable people, with the penalty raised to five years in jail.

Anyone who “knowingly promotes homosexuality” faces up to 20 years in jail — a provision left unchanged from the original bill — while organisations found guilty of encouraging same-sex activity could face a 10-year ban.

Aid cuts and visa cancellations

Reaction from civil society in Uganda has been muted following years of erosion of civic space under Museveni’s rule.

The European Parliament voted in April to condemn the bill and asked EU states to pressure Museveni into not implementing it, warning that relations with Kampala were at stake.

The White House also warned the government of possible economic repercussions if the legislation took effect.

A 2014 anti-gay bill signed into law by Museveni but later struck down prompted foreign aid cuts by Western nations, and diplomats have warned similar measures are being considered now.

The MP who sponsored the bill, said aid cuts were expected and that Among, the parliament speaker, had already been informed her US visa had been revoked.

“Our colleagues in the Western world have indicated and actually actualised their threats – visas have been cancelled. As I speak now, the speaker’s visas have been cancelled for America, the other day… and this is also confirmed. This is an email from the US embassy: ‘Dear Madam speaker, The United States government has revoked your current visas'”, Asuman Basalirwa, added.

Nigeria’s newly sworn in president Bola Tinubu has promised to “defend the nation from terror and all forms of criminality” in his first speech as president of the west African nation. Tinubu also declared that “fuel subsidies are gone” which will hike up the price of refined oil in a country in the throes of a serious economic crisis with double-digit inflation, exploding debt, poverty and unemployment.

“I will not allow my personal interest to influence my official conduct or my official decisions. That I will preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” says Tinubu, the new Nigerian leader.

The 71 year old also vowed to heal the nation. “We are here to further mend and heal this nation, not to tear and injure it. We shall defend the nation from terror and all forms of criminality that threaten the peace and stability of our country.”

Tinubu became Nigeria’s president on Monday during a period of unprecedented challenges for Africa’s most populous country, leaving some citizens hopeful for a better life and others skeptical that his government would perform better than the one he succeeded.

Thousands of Nigerians and several heads of government attended the swearing-in ceremony for Tinubu in the country’s capital, Abuja.

He succeeds President Muhammadu Buhari to lead a country that by 2050 is forecast to become the third most populous nation in the world, tied with the United States after India and China.

Tinubu — the former governor of Lagos, which is Nigeria’s economic hub — has promised to build on Buhari’s efforts to deliver democratic dividends to citizens in a country where deadly security crises, widespread poverty and hunger have left many frustrated and angry.

And with his election still being contested in court by opposition parties and among many young Nigerians, Tinubu has also pledged to reunite the country.

In his first comments as president, Tinubu, also from Buhari’s party, declared that “hope is back for Nigeria” and said he would work beyond improving the economic and security conditions to unite a deeply divided nation and ensure fairness and justice for aggrieved groups.

Symbolic of a transition of power and loyalty to the new president, Gen. Lucky Irabor, Nigeria’s chief of defense staff, presented old national and defense flags of Nigeria to Buhari and received new ones from Tinubu, who is also the Chief of the Armed Forces.

Following the national elections in February, newly elected governors also took their oath of office in many Nigerian states on Monday.

At the inauguration venue, neither of the two main opposition candidates challenging Tinubu’s election in court was present and many Nigerians tweeted in protest to Tinubu’s inauguration.

The outcome of the court challenge is due in about three weeks.

If the opposition challenges are upheld, it would be the first time a presidential election would be nullified by the court in Nigeria’s history.

Tinubu’s manifesto of “renewed hope” prioritizes the creation of sufficient jobs and ramping up of local production of goods, investing in agriculture and public infrastructure, providing economic opportunities for the poorest and most vulnerable as well as creating better national security architecture to tackle all forms of insecurity.

However, Tinubu’s ambitious plans could be threatened in his first 100 days in office by a mountain of challenges, from insecurity to a fiscal crisis, poverty and deepening public discontent with the state, analysts say.

Some analysts also say the promises made by Tinubu and the hope they bring are reminiscent of when Buhari was first elected president in 2015 as a former military head of state.

His priorities were to fight insecurity and build the economy but he ended up failing to meet the expectations of many.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed a judge to oversee an inquiry into allegations that the country supplied arms to Russia on a ship that docked secretly at a naval base in December.

The allegations were made this month by the United States’ ambassador to South Africa, who said he was sure that weapons and ammunition were loaded onto the Russian-flagged cargo ship Lady R when it docked at the Simon’s Town naval base near Cape Town late last year.

Ambassador Reuben Brigety indicated that the U.S. had intelligence to sustain the allegation and he said he would bet his life on the accuracy of his claim that weapons were loaded onto the ship.

The Lady R container-carrying ship is under U.S. sanctions for being tied to a company that has transported weapons to aid the Russian war effort in Ukraine.

South Africa has denied there was any government-sanctioned deal to provide weapons to Russia, although it hasn’t categorically ruled out that an unofficial transaction took place involving another entity.

Judge P.M.D. Mojapelo, a former Supreme Court of Appeal judge, was appointed chairman of a three-member panel to investigate the incident, Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement on Sunday. A lawyer and a former minister of justice were also appointed.

The panel has six weeks to complete its investigations and another two weeks from then to provide a report to Ramaphosa, the president’s office said.

“The panel has been tasked to establish persons who were aware of the cargo ship’s arrival, and, if any, the contents to be off-loaded or loaded, the departure and destination of the cargo,” Ramaphosa’s office said.

Ramaphosa ordered the inquiry because of the seriousness of the allegations and “the impact of this matter on South Africa’s international relations,” his office said.

South Africa could be in breach of international law and its own laws regarding weapons sales if it is found to have supplied arms to Moscow for the war in Ukraine.

The incident has strained relations between the U.S. and South Africa, which is Africa’s most developed economy and a key Western partner on the continent.

South African Defense Minister Thandi Modise has said the Lady R was visiting to deliver an ammunition shipment from Russia that was ordered by South Africa in 2018 but was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Modise has refused to release cargo documents related to the visit by the Lady R after requests by opposition parties, saying they are classified. She said she will release them to the inquiry, though.