There was drama on Tuesday when MPs Anna Adeke, Soroti District Woman Representative and Jonathan Odur, Erute South, engaged in an exchange on whether the mouth and anus should be enacted as body organs where sexual violence can be committed.
Odur argued that the inclusion of the anus would create a window for Uganda to legalize homosexuality and proposed to maintain the status quo of the penis and vagina as the only permissible sexual organs.
This was during the scrutiny of The Sexual Offences Bill 2024 before the Joint Committee of Legal and Gender.
Below is the transcription 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 the 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 the 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, that 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 the anus is among the sexual organs that we are covering because to put it there, 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, and 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.
Odur: I am not a fan of copy and paste. Some of the things we do here are informed by our customs and traditions, for example in our setting, how do we court a woman? Are we going to criminalise that? That if I wink at a woman, that if I whistle at a woman, which are the things we have used in the villages, or even use some symbols that can communicate. Are we now going to bring that and criminalize that to make life very difficult for things that are socially acceptable?
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