Micheal Ighodaro, an activist with Global Black Gay Men Connect, delivers remarks at a protest outside the Ugandan Embassy over the Uganda's parliamentary Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2023 on April 25, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

A Republican lawmaker gave a speech at a National Prayer Breakfast in Uganda in October in which he urged the nation to stand firm behind its new anti-homosexuality law which includes the death penalty, according to a report. 

The speech by Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) was brought to light by the website The Young Turks and shared by Salon.

Walberg’s trip to the country had been funded by the Fellowship Foundation, known as The Family, a U.S. group that’s behind Uganda’s National Prayer Breakfast, according to congressional filings unearthed by The Young Turks.

As keynote speaker, video of which was shared in the report, he was seen endorsing other speakers, some of which called LGBTQ+ advocates “a force from the bottom of hell” and argued for “Christocracy” over democracy. 

Walberg “explicitly encouraged Uganda’s leaders to resist opposition to the law from the U.S., the U.N. and other global institutions,” the report stated.

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, who signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act into law in May, later said Walberg’s attendance showed there are Americans who “think like us,” according to the report.

The report said Walberg justified his presence through his role as co-chair of the U.S. National Prayer Breakfast.

The Anti-Homosexuality Law, commonly known as the “Kill the Gays Bill,” provides for prison sentences and execution for “aggravated homosexuality,” including “serial offenses.”

It has been widely condemned, with the Biden administration demanding that it be repealed.

But in his speech, Walberg said, “Though the rest of the world is pushing back on you, though there are other major countries that are trying to get into you and ultimately change you, stand firm. Stand firm.”

He went on, “Worthless is the thought of the world, worthless, for instance, is the thought of the World Bank, or the World Health Organization, or the United Nations, or, sadly, some in our administration in America who say, ‘You are wrong for standing for values that God created,’ for saying there are male and female and God created them.

“Whose side do we want to be on? God’s side. Not the World Bank, not the United States of America, necessarily, not the U.N. God’s side.”  By Adam Nichols, Rawstory

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni has expressed support for the European Union's regulations aimed at blocking coffee imports from registered farmers and those grown on deforested lands.

Recently, the European parliament approved a landmark deforestation law, banning imports into the European Union of coffee, beef, soy, and other commodities if they are linked to the destruction of the world's forests. 

This move, set to take effect in 2025, demands verifiable proof that goods weren't produced on deforested land post-2020 to avoid substantial fines, aimed at combatting climate change.

Speaking about the said regulations, which will also include taking coffee exports from Uganda’s registered coffee farmers, Museveni said this time round for the first time, he will agree with the European Union. Museveni revealed that by coming up with the said regulations, the EU will have helped him in the fight against deforestation.  

According to data from the online forest tracking portal Global Forest Watch, Uganda has seen an increase in deforestation in the last decade. Records released in 2021 show that while in 2001, the country lost 297 km2 of forest, by 2020 the figure had more than doubled (736 km2 of forest lost in a single year).

As such, Museveni says it is criminal to encroach on wetlands for manmade activities. He said they will deal with the encroachers but at the right time but they need to listen.

Museveni explained that when they had just returned from the bush in 1986, they found that people had encroached on the entire Mabira forest but he chased them. He welcomed what he described as good pressure from the European Union. Museveni made the remarks on Friday night while responding to questions during his engagement with the media at State House Entebbe.

At least 60 per cent of Uganda’s coffee exports go to the European market. Museveni answered several questions from journalists including concerns about multiple land titles issued on one land and continued detention of political prisoners without trial.

He said that he would soon issue an executive order chasing soldiers from land matters because they are supposed to be fighting from the bush, not in land matters.  He, however, said that he hadn't gotten sufficient time to issue that executive order. - URN/The Observer

 Kenya is set to receive the first batch of upgraded and modernized security equipment early next year.

The counter-terrorism policing Kenya has confirmed that the equipment worth Sh7 billion, will include Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles (MRAP), Armoured Personnel Carriers, and surveillance drones and are set to arrive in the country by January next year.

“Security agencies will receive modern security equipment like Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles (MRAP), Armoured Personnel Carriers, and surveillance drones,” CTP Kenya stated on X.

”The first batch of the equipment worth Ksh 7 billion will arrive in the country by January 2024,” they added.

They say that the government is set to spend Ksh 37 billion in the next 5 years to enhance and technologize the security equipment in the country.

“According to Interior Cabinet Secretary @KindikiKithure, the government will spend Ksh 37 billion in the next five years to upgrade and modernize security equipment for security agencies,” they stated.

They have assured that the equipment will enable the security agencies to suppress terrorism and banditry in various parts of the country such as North Eastern and Lamu.

“This will boost security agencies which are battling #AlShabaab terrorists and bandits in the country,” they stated. By Ken Muthomi, Capital News

Archbishop Martin Kivuva, KCCB Chairperson/FILE/Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa

Mombasa Catholic Archbishop Martin Kivuva has said that he is not going to bless any couple of the same sex stressing that homosexuality defies the Christian teachings.

Addressing the media Monday, the archbishop said together with his colleagues is not going to accept the command of blessing homosexual couples, stressing that this defies what blessings are meant to do.

“I’m not blessing same-sex Unions, no, we are not blessing same-sex marriages. Others are bringing me their bicycles to bless another one his car. Blessings is to bring goodness and the grace of God in everything that we do,” he said.

The archbishops said that the catholic church has specific criteria for conducting marriage blessings.

“Do not think that we bless just like that, a father investigates the nature of the marriage, and that is why we are saying that the intention of the mass, and we as Catholics have a criteria, we don’t just bless,” he said.

He stated that the church does not have any room for homosexuals and it is unnegotiable, stressing that the act has always been condemned since the deep past.

“Marriages of people from the same sex either by women or men, that is unnegotiable,” he said.

The archbishop stressed that the African culture particularly in Kenya condemns this kind of act, and has urged Kenyans, and people from different religions to take a step and make decisions on what is good to do. By Ken Muthoni, Capital News