\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSpeaker repeatedly blames Ugandan regime\u2019s failures on opponents of anti-gay law.<\/p>\n
Former MP Asumani Basalirwa had been the face of homophobia in the Parliament of Uganda. (Photo courtesy of the Parliament of Uganda)
\nAnita Among, the Speaker of the Uganda Parliament, has blamed the defeat of her homophobic ally Asuman Basalirwa on his leading role in the enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) of 2023.
\nAmong was speaking on Feb. 28 during an Iftar dinner that parliament hosts every year during the Islamic holy month of Ramadhan.
\nAmong has repeatedly blamed almost all failures of the Ugandan executive, parliament and her political allies on the enactment of the AHA, without providing evidence.
\nAsuman Basalirwa, who lost his bid to retain the Bugiri Municipality seat in parliament, was among the Muslims who attended and spoke at the Iftar dinner. Basalirwa was the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Muslim Caucus.
\nIn her remarks, Among described Basalirwa as a political messiah who was embattled in his constituency because of his anti-homosexuality stance. She promised him a job to compensate for his loss.
\n\u201cWhen you hear that the homosexuality bill, no wonder my friend has been sacrificed. He\u2019s the one who brought the law on homosexuality. And when he brought the law on homosexuality, he was fought until he lost. But in our father\u2019s room, there are so many rooms. You will always have somewhere. And as your friends, we will never let you move alone. We\u2019ll move with you wherever. Me and the deputy speaker will ensure that you have a place to be,\u201d Among said.
\nPraise for Among
\nIn his remarks, Basalirwa, an opposition politician and formerly a fierce critic of the ruling party\u2019s excesses, poured praise on the house speaker for clearing the way for passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act and the Islamic Banking Act as well as for supporting Muslims\u2019 religious pilgrimages to Mecca.
\n\u201cI also want to thank you for taking the lead role in the Anti-Homosexuality Law. That law, I am very sure, if it was not because of your strength, the support you gave me as the mover of the Anti-Homosexuality Law, and for us as Muslims, because [opposition to the AHA] was intended to destroy the institution of the family, and for us family is worship,\u201d Basalirwa stated.
\nRebuttal to Among\u2019s claim
\nFrank Mugisha, a human rights advocate and the head of the LGBTQ rights group Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) disputed Among\u2019s claim that Basalirwa lost his seat because of his support for the AHA 2023.
\nMugisha said the public is far more concerned with tangible issues than what he described as manufactured fear-mongering. The \u201canti-gay card\u201d is a tired tactic that no longer works, he said.
\nMugisha asserts that Ugandans are moving past the politics of hate.
\n\u201cThe irony of using \u2018family values\u2019 and \u2018anti-imperialism\u2019 to justify exclusion, only to be rejected by the voters, is a powerful narrative. Scapegoating the LGBTQ+ community is officially an outdated political currency; Hon. Basalirwa, the mover of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, clearly lacked the support of Ugandans\u2014and that is why he lost so badly at the polls\u201d, Mugisha wrote on X.
\nRainbow Hopes Foundation under the X handle @Rainbow_Hopes_F hit back at Basalirwa\u2019s scapegoating of LGBTQ people.
\n\u201cThe inhumane laws you pass and the positions you take affect real families. Families like your own\u201d, the group stated.
\n See Also<\/p>\n
Efforts to unseat Among
\nBasalirwa also took aim at legislators who have announced their bids to unseat Among from the position of speaker, accusing them without evidence of being sponsored by \u201cimperialists\u2019\u201d a term regularly used by President Yoweri Museveni to refer to Europe- and America-based institutions and leaders.
\n\u201cNo wonder, there are people who seek to come to your office, who have resorted to blackmailing, sectarianism, partly because of being sponsored by imperialists who sanctioned you, because we can no longer travel to their countries.\u201d
\nAmong described her challengers as \u201cnoise makers\u201d, saying that no amount of noise will distract her from retaining her position of Speaker.
\n\u201cI just want to make a point to the ones making noise out there that leadership comes from God, and if God says in the twelfth Parliament Anita and Tayebwa are the leaders, it will be and it is going to be. No noise will stop us from being the leaders. We shall be the leaders of the next Parliament,\u201d she stated.
\nThe race for the Speakership of Uganda\u2019s 12th Parliament has taken shape, with at least five lawmakers so far expressing interest in the top legislative position. The list is expected to grow in advance of the elections scheduled for May.
\nAmong those expected to run, in addition to Among, are:<\/p>\n
State Minister for Housing Persis Namuganza, a member of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM);
\nNorbert Mao, Democratic Party President General and Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs;
\nLydia Wanyoto, a member of the party\u2019s Central Executive Committee and
\nYorke Odria Alioni, the member of parliament for Aringa South County and an NRM member.<\/p>\n
Erasing 76 Crimes has learned from reliable sources that the ruling party has resolved to maintain the status quo in parliament, which boosts Among\u2019s chances of retaining the position of speaker of an NRM-dominated house.<\/p>\n\n Speaker repeatedly blames Ugandan regime\u2019s failures on opponents of anti-gay law. Former MP Asumani Basalirwa had been the face of homophobia in the Parliament of Uganda. (Photo courtesy of the Parliament of Uganda) Anita Among, the Speaker of the Uganda Parliament, has blamed the defeat of her homophobic ally Asuman Basalirwa on his leading role …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_3659155457675267_172535249438148":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Anti-gay-Ugandan-parliament-leader-blames-lawmakers-defeat-on-his-anti-gay.jpg",1132,860,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Anti-gay-Ugandan-parliament-leader-blames-lawmakers-defeat-on-his-anti-gay-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Anti-gay-Ugandan-parliament-leader-blames-lawmakers-defeat-on-his-anti-gay-300x228.jpg",300,228,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Anti-gay-Ugandan-parliament-leader-blames-lawmakers-defeat-on-his-anti-gay-768x583.jpg",618,469,true],"large":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Anti-gay-Ugandan-parliament-leader-blames-lawmakers-defeat-on-his-anti-gay-1024x778.jpg",618,470,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Anti-gay-Ugandan-parliament-leader-blames-lawmakers-defeat-on-his-anti-gay.jpg",1132,860,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Anti-gay-Ugandan-parliament-leader-blames-lawmakers-defeat-on-his-anti-gay.jpg",1132,860,false],"tie-small":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Anti-gay-Ugandan-parliament-leader-blames-lawmakers-defeat-on-his-anti-gay.jpg",99,75,false],"tie-medium":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Anti-gay-Ugandan-parliament-leader-blames-lawmakers-defeat-on-his-anti-gay.jpg",217,165,false],"tie-large":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Anti-gay-Ugandan-parliament-leader-blames-lawmakers-defeat-on-his-anti-gay.jpg",270,205,false],"slider":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Anti-gay-Ugandan-parliament-leader-blames-lawmakers-defeat-on-his-anti-gay.jpg",434,330,false],"big-slider":["https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Anti-gay-Ugandan-parliament-leader-blames-lawmakers-defeat-on-his-anti-gay.jpg",691,525,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xavieradioug.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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