Renown Pastor and anti-gay activist, Martin Ssempa has been appointed on the new committee instituted by Parliament to regulate porn consumption by Ugandans.
Although he was absent at inaugural, reportedly out of the country, Ssempa was announced by the State Minister of Ethics and Integrity, Father Simon Lokodo on Monday while addressing Journalists at Uganda Media Centre – Kampala.
Lokodo said this team chaired by Dr. Annette Kezaabu Kasimbazi, the deputy vice chancellor Kampala International University (KIU) has been inaugurated by parliament and allocated Ush2 billion to officially oversee and implement the anti-pornography law that was passed 2014.
On top of sensitizing the public, “The committee is going to expedite the process of getting a pornography detecting software which will be installed to distill what you are consuming. We have already arrested and prosecuted some people and more arrests will be made.” Father Simon Lokodo said, in accordance to Anti-Pornography Act 2014 Section II Act 7.
The new committee includes among others Dalton Opwonya, Sheik Mohammad Ali Waiswa, Joan Kyomugisha, Gastone Byamugisha, Hafisa Kabagonja, Victoria Sentamu and Fred Nyakori.
Functions of the Pornography Control Committee
(1) to take all necessary measures to ensure the early detection and prohibition of pornography
(2) to ensure that the perpetrators of pornography are apprehended and prosecuted
(3) to collect and destroy pornographic objects or materials with the assistance of the police
(4) to educate and sensitise the public about pornography
(5) to promote the rehabilitation of individuals, groups and families or communities affected by pornography
(6) to expedite the development or acquisition and installation of effective protective software in electronic equipment such as computers, mobile phones and televisions for the detection and suppression of pornography~
Lokodo said that the penalty for one caught consuming pornography is a 2-year jail sentence.
The government will, according to sources, keep a register of pornography offenders, including their age, contact details and convicted offence.
Pr Ssempa has been a rare face in Uganda since leaving WBS TV where he hosted a program named ‘Ssempa@360’.
The HIV/AIDs advocate was long before media when convicted at Buganda Road Court of conspiring to tarnish another pastor’s reputation by falsely accusing him of engaging in homosexuality.
In 2014, Google published statistics listing the countries with the greatest number of searches for gay porn on the web and found Uganda ranked third, behind Kenya and Pakistan.
Roger Ross Williams, director of the award-winning documentary God Loves Uganda, told the Huffington Post he believes that the high numbers of internet searches for gay pornography in the nation are not necessarily reflective of the country’s LGBT population, but instead reflect the society’s curiosity about sex in general.
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