MP Bwanika demands NUP stance on LGBTQ amid public controversy

Kampala, (UG):- The Opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) is yet again battling a new wave of crisis after Hon Dr Abed Bwanika, its member and MP for Kimaanya-Kabonera County in Masaka City calling out the party leadership to give a clear and decisive stance on LGBT+Q issues amid controversy in the public eye.

In his letter dated March 25, addressed to Mr John Baptist Nambeshe, the opposition chief whip in parliament, Dr Bwanika expressed concerns that the party leader Mr Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine has in the past made statements interpreted as though he is supporting homosexuality and has been sighted severally closing in with known homosexuals and organizations.

The former independent Presidential candidate and DP Cardre further demands that NUP clarifies the controversy created by Bobi Wine’s interview when he appeared on BBC in December last year, which suggested that the Party is friendly and supports LGBT+Q, as opposed to the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act and Penal Code Act.

“That fears prevalent in the public realm that our party, the National Unity Platform either by association or omission, abates and promotes homosexuality,” Bwanika’s petition reads in part.

During the interview with the British broadcaster, Kyagulanyi is also reported to have stated that all NUP Members of Parliament who voted in support of the anti-homosexuality act were working contrary to the party’s stand on LGBT+Q and that the majority had been compromised by President Museveni.

He also raised suspicions surrounding Kyagulanyi’s alleged associations with international LGBT+Q activists and sponsors, such as Rev. Jesse Jackson and US Secretary for Transport Pete Buttigieg, and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Annual Conference in Chicago.

Dr Bwanika further indicates that Kyagulanyi’s dress code has tremendously changed to suit the colours and fashion of the LGBTQI as evidenced by the bell-bottom fashion dress and Purple colours during the BAFTA award ceremony in London.

Bwanika further claims that the LGBTQ also lobbies and offers NUP clandestinely huge sums of money and mounted pressure to oust Former Leader of Opposition Mathias Mpuuga just because of his LGBTQ stand.

“Now Therefore by the foregoing, your humble petitioner prays, that a meeting of a lawful organ of the party to be convened at the fasted instance, to debate and pronounce an equivocal position of the National Unity Platform on LGBTQ,” he wrote.

Bwanika therefore demands that a meeting of a lawful organ of NUP be convened at the fastest convenience to debate and pronounce an unequivocal position of the Party on LGBT+Q adding that the same should be publically stated to calm the hearts of many Ugandans.

He says parents are worried about their youthful children under NUP who may be molested or introduced to this vice which contradicts Uganda’s values and culture.