Hon. Sarah Opendi (pictured) says Parliament must provide leadership in the fight against LGBTQ activities in schools.
The Committee on Education has been tasked to expeditiously carry out investigations into same-sex vices in schools. This follows a directive given on the matter by Speaker Anita Among on Wednesday, 18 January 2023. On 23 January 2023, Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa expressed concern over the deterioration of morals in schools.
“I am getting painful stories; if you talk to doctors, you get to know how serious it is but our children are dying in silence,” Tayebwa said.
Tayebwa said the report should be given urgent priority, noting that many schools and recruitment centres have been penetrated by the vice.
“I hope it [report] can be quick so that we can debate it and get a solution. We need to see how best we can work with government to support it…whether we can put more funding to patrol all these entities,” Tayebwa added.
Hon Gilbert Olanya (FDC, Kilak South County) said many parents in country are worried for the safety of their children as they prepare to start their first term studies.
“As we speak, the Committee on Education is overwhelmed with so many bills and reports yet this matter is very important. I suggest, Mr. Speaker, that you form an ad-hoc Committee to handle this issue urgently,” Olanya said.
Hon. Nsaba Buturo (NRM, Bufumbira County East) also suggested that a committee to audit the state of morality in Uganda be put in place.
“Our country is in trouble and our foundations are being whittled away. This committee would take into account the issues of moral decline and give us the field to address them,” he said.
Hon. Charles Bakkabulindi (NRM, Workers Representative) recommended that Parliament should task the Ministry of Internal Affairs to scrutinize non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country.
“Some NGOs are not monitored or how they are performing ever since they started working in our country, and they are trying to recruit our children,” Bakkabulindi said.
Tororo District Woman MP, Hon. Sarah Opendi said that some NGOs have been banned in the country due to a check on morality but added that they re-emerge in different names.
“The offices and activities of NGOs like Sexual Minorities Uganda were known and the NGO Board suspended their activities. But we have another one calling themselves a consortium of these NGOs dealing with the same activity,” Opendi said.
She urged leaders in the country not to shy away from protecting children from the negative vice of relationship education which she says has been introduced in some curricula.
Hon. Ronald Afidra (NRM, Lower Madi County) urged Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) to put a check on programmes that expose children to pornography.
“UCC should be put to book on some of these television programmes like cartoons that target our children who are the foundation of our future,” Afidra said.
