The debate surrounding the Sexual Offences Bill, 2024 at committee level is getting interesting and vulgar.
The Legal & Parliamentary Affairs Committee Tuesday started scrutunising proposals made in the Bill by Anna Adeke, the Soroti District Woman Member of Parliament.
In the Bill, Adele wants a jail term of 10 years to be imposed on anyone who amicably settles sexual offences like rape, aggravated rape & defilement, aggravated defilement, child grooming, etc in Uganda.
Adeke also proposed tough measures of dealing with past sexual offenders, calling for the establishment of a Sexual Offenders Register that will have details of the individual, crimes they committed, and the register will be managed by National Identification and Registrations Authority (NIRA).
In clause 36 of the Bill, Adeke proposed a jail term of 7years to be imposed on anyone who fails to disclose their sexual offence conviction while seeking for employment, while all employers in Uganda will also be required to cross check with NIRA to establish if the prospective employee wasn’t convicted of any past sexual offence before approved for employment especially in the care of children or vulnerable people.
Adeke also proposed to maintain prostitution as a crime in Uganda but expand the scope by including male prostitute, other than the tradition offence that only punished women for the same acts.
However, MPs on the Joint Committee of Legal and Gender have rejected the proposal to maintain prostitution as an offence in Uganda and instead called on Government to regulate and start collecting taxes from sex workers.
“I strongly feel, we should legalize prostitution, we should regulate that sector, promote it, make some money from it. For us as legislators, our forte isn’t morality. Morality is for the reverends, canons and the Fathers,” said Fox Odoi, the West Budama North East MP.
Odoi also rejected the proposal to have rapists suffer the death penalty, wondering why Adeke would propose such a draconian punishment yet there are more vile crimes like mass murder, genocide which don’t carry the death penalty.
“In principle, I don’t support the death penalty as punishment for any offence, and as a country, I thought we had moved away from this position. So I thought that when you introduced this law, you were going to do away with the death penalty for all the offences,” said Odoi.
But the most interesting part of the discussion was between Adele and Jonathan Odur, the Erute South MP. Their exchange was on whether the mouth & anus should be enacted as body organs where sexual violence can be committed.
Odur argued that inclusion of the anus would create a window for Uganda to legalize homosexuality & proposed to maintain the status quo of the penis & vagina as the only permissible sexual organs.
Below is the transcription by Parliament Watch of how the exchange ensued.
Odur: If you read this law carefully, you seem to give another window for homosexuals, in relation to the Anti-Homosexuality Act. If you read your definition of sexual act and where you bring in consent, it deems where sex has taken place.
In my mind, I seem to understand why there was a very strong argument for the use of the word penis, and the vagina and the rest were excluded. I know they are offences, but I find it difficult to bring them under the purview of sexual offences because by implication, you are saying that those are also sexual organs that can be used.
Odur: So I understand why lawmakers then and now had restricted that. Maybe that is why under the law, they were using other terms maybe canal knowledge because when we import and bring that (mouth & anus), I think we are going to create a lot of confusion because for example, is a breast a sexual organ? Because somewhere, you have talked of breasts, buttocks where do we put that? I understand they could be offensive to somebody and we must provide a punishment for that because in some cases, people use the hand. So are you going to say even the hand has become a sexual organ?
Adeke: We must know that even heterosexual couples can or even have anal sex, making anus a sexual organ, that doesn’t drive us into condoning homosexuality. We have even made the mouth a sexual organ because previously for a woman under the Penal Code Act, it was only the vagina deemed the sexual organ, so if it was penetration of the anus or mouth, you wouldn’t be catered for. And if it was the man penetrating the anus of a woman, that isn’t homosexuality. It is a heterosexual couple, it isn’t same sex.
Adeke: If there was penetration of a woman’s anus, it can’t be covered because canal knowledge was the vagina, so you can’t get any remedy. We have men forcing their penises into women’s mouths, is it a lie? No. That is a sexual organ under this law. That also becomes rape under this law. You haven’t penetrated a vagina, but you have put your sexual organ into somebody’s mouth. That is rape.
Odur: What is the whole essence of this legislation? My understanding is that the essence is, you are punishing the use of force, you are punishing, lack of consent. So are you now saying, where there is consent, that isn’t a punishment?
Adeke: You know there has to be a complainant, if there is no complainant, then there is consent, how shall we know?
Odur: That was the very argument on homosexuality that when two people meet, they agree and do their thing, then there is no complainant, but we said, whether they agreed, it is criminal.
Adeke: I think Hon. Jonathan isn’t comfortable that anus is among the sexual organs that we are covering because to put it there, it presupposes that it is an allowable entry.
Odur: I am not comfortable calling that (anus & mouth) a sexual organ, we can provide for it, but we can’t call it a sexual organ. We can find words for it.
Adeke: The anus, mouth aren’t sexual organs but a sexual act can be committed with that organ. If I put my finger into your mouth or ear, it isn’t a sexual act, but if I put a penis into your mouth, it is a sexual act.
