On a sunny Wednesday, waking up to Facebook wall
updates all stating the same thing mini skirt law in Uganda, after the aborted
Marriage and Divorce Bill. What many may not know is that the now aborted bill
has been on the parliament shelf for now a very good time that had long been
forgotten.
Just as one might have thought that the
parliamentarians having been “offered” 5 Million shillings each by the
government to do research for the Marriage and Divorce Bill, would not again
shock the nation with another bill, the Anti-Pornography bill was already
waiting their response. The Marriage and Divorce bill having caused a lot of
controversy with even the religious leaders strongly opposing it, some
politicians and church leaders associating them to the cultures from the west
that want to break the family bonds in Africa this saw it later being suspended
following a heated debated that divided the House.
Unlike the Marriage and Divorce Bill, the
Anti-Pornography Bill met it hot with people wondering how the government would
implement such a bill that of all the clauses in it the population only
concentrated on the clause that considers the wearing of mini skirt and showing
some flesh amounting to pornography. This to some people who feel it being
against their human rights would bring up all that they feel should be a ground
to oppose this bill.
Going to the root of the bill and the person who
tabled it in parliament; it should be noted that this was first tabled by the
Ex-Ethics and Integrity Minister Mr.Nsaba Buturo but he lost the battle to
parliament with a number of pressing issues coming up the bill was always being
shunned to have time and concentrate on matters of concern. Just as he quit,
his successor of three years felt obliged to re-table this and thus Fr.Lukodo
tabled that bill that saw the nation go wild on how one would determine what
another ought to have worn. It should be noted that the eradication of
mini-skirt was established during the reign if the then late President Idi
Amin, who was in the event of seeing that the sharia law being established in
Uganda and thus introduced the wearing of long skirts that reached the feet,
this was ensure decency in the society. In the wake of his exit, Ugandans
slowly but sure degenerated back to wearing what suits them with the coming of
the new era of President Museveni where human rights had a view in the public.
The implementation of such a bill is what wonders
how it will be done. From experience many a law are passed in the legislature
but the implementation bit of it becomes the biggest problem. A look at the
mini-skirt bill, one wonders whether there will be policemen at very homestead
with an already stretched human resource. How will you determine that wearing a
mini skirt is a violation of the laws, and if that then, what is the use of the rights to
self-expression provided for in the constitution of the country, and does it
still remain supreme and won’t that only lead to many suits against the state
or the law and justice department. Many questions can be asked and eye brows
raised but the answers to these questions are best found with the people
tabling this bill.
It’s one thing to be a student of law and also to be
the one tabling it, at this point I am tabling my views not as a student of
law, but rather as any lay Ugandan citizen would have looked at that bill. One
wonders why Uganda being one of the countries with very tough laws are so
lacking in the implementation of these laws. I will answer that, implementation
of a law comes with the people’s willingness to be obliged to the laws. I for
one may not have known how it would have felt to propose a law and see it being
left to the society to decide its fate, I would worry of course.
Let the people decide just as they vote to be
represented their fate lies in the hands of those whom they entrusted to
represent them in the august house, they should hold them accountable.
Ronald Ochoo,
F: Ronnie Ross Onyang O
T: @Ronnie_Ross_O
Skype: ronnieross256
Commonwealth Youth Programme,
Correspondent from Uganda.
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