Asuman Basalirwa | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the Ugandan Parliament from Bugiri Municipality | |
| Assumed office 2018 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 17, 1977 |
| Nationality | Ugandan |
| Political party | Justice Forum |
| Alma mater | Makerere University |
Asuman Basalirwa (born November 17, 1977) is a Ugandan politician and member of the 11th parliament representing Bugiri Municipality. He was first elected to the parliament in 2018 on the ticket of Justice Forum (JEEMA). [1]
Basalirwa earned his First School Leaving Certificate from Mwiri Primary School in 1991, and Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE), 1996 and Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) from Kiira College Butiki in 1998. [2] He holds a Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre (LDC) Kampala, Uganda in 2004. In 2008, he finished from Pretoria University with a Certificate in International Humanitarian Law and a Master of Laws from Makerere University in 2015. He’s a Lawyer/Partner at Sewankambo & Co. Advocates. [2]
Basalirwa is the president of Justice Forum (JEEMA) from 2010 to date. [3] He is the Chairperson of the Inter-Party Organisation on Dialogue (IPOD). He was elected to the parliament in 2018 and was re-elected in the 2021 general election to represent Bugiri Municipality. He serves as the Deputy Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament. [4] [5]
In March 2023, he tabled the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2023, which would criminalise and jail people who identify as LGBTQ in Uganda. Anyone engaging in a same-sex relationship or in a same-sex marriage in Uganda would serve a 10-year jail sentence. [6] President Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law on 29 May 2023 after parliament watered it down. It is still among the harshest anti-LGBTQ laws in the world. Homosexual acts are already illegal in Uganda but now anyone convicted faces life imprisonment. [7]
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The southern part includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, shared with Kenya and Tanzania. Uganda is in the African Great Lakes region, it lies within the Nile basin, and has a varied equatorial climate. As of 2024, it has a population of over 49 million, of which 8.5 million live in the capital and largest city, Kampala.
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Tibuhaburwa is a Ugandan politician and military officer who is the ninth and current president of Uganda since 1986. As of 2024, he is the third-longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leader in the world. His government is considered autocratic.
Sam Kahamba Kutesa is a Ugandan politician, businessman and lawyer involved in several corruption cases. By the marriage of his daughter Charlotte Kutesa Muhoozi with Muhoozi he is part of the inner circle of president Museveni. Kutesa was the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet of Uganda, a position he held from 13 January 2005 and maintained through three cabinet reshuffles until May 2021. He was also the elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Mawogola County in Sembabule District. He was the President of the United Nations General Assembly during its 69th session in 2014–2015.
Human rights in Uganda have trended for the past decades towards increasing harassment of the opposition, cracking down on NGOs which work on election and term limits, corruption, land rights, environmental issues, womens, children and gay rights. In 2012, the Relief Web sponsored Humanitarian Profile – 2012 said Uganda made considerable developments Since at least 2013 the Freedom in the World report by Freedom House has identified Uganda as a country considered to be "Not Free".There are several areas of concern when it comes to human rights in Uganda, and the "Not Free" classification is due to both low political rights and civil liberties rankings.
Warren Kizza Besigye Kifefe, known as Colonel Dr. Kizza Besigye, is a Ugandan physician, politician, and former military officer of the Uganda People's Defence Force. He served as the president of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) political party and was an unsuccessful candidate in Uganda's 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016 presidential elections, losing all of them to the incumbent, Yoweri Museveni, who has been president of Uganda since 26 January 1986. The results of the 2006 elections were contested in court, and the court found massive rigging and disenfranchisement. Besigye allowed an early internal FDC election for a successor president, which took place on 24 November 2012.
Abdu Katuntu is a Ugandan politician and lawyer currently serving as the Member of Parliament for Bugweri County in Bugweri District.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in Uganda face severe legal and social challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ residents. Same-sex sexual activity is illegal for both men and women in Uganda. It was originally criminalised by British colonial laws introduced when Uganda became a British protectorate, and these laws have been retained since the country gained its independence.
Frederick Douglas Mwanja Mukisa was a Ugandan educator and politician. He served as the State Minister for Fisheries in the Ugandan Cabinet, from 1 June 2006 until 27 May 2011. In the cabinet reshuffle of 27 May 2011, he was dropped from the cabinet and replaced by Ruth Nankabirwa. He also served in the elected Ugandan Parliament, representing "Bukooli County Central", Bugiri District, from 2006 until 2011. During the 2011 national election cycle, he lost to Hajji Siraji Lyavala during the National Resistance Movement (NRM) primaries, who in turn lost to Wafula Oguttu of the Forum for Democratic Change, in the general election. In March 2015, Siraji Lyavala was elected Chairman (LC-5) of Bugiri District.
Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga is a Ugandan lawyer and politician who served as the Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda from 19 May 2011 until 21 May 2021. She currently serves as the First Deputy Prime Minister of Uganda. She concurrently serves as Minister for East African Community Affairs, in the Cabinet of Uganda.
David Bahati is a Ugandan accountant and politician. He is the Minister of State for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives (Industry) in the Cabinet of Uganda. He was appointed to that position in a cabinet reshuffle on 9 June 2021. He was previously the Minister of State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development (Planning) replacing Matia Kasaija. He is a member of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), the ruling party and is the Chairperson NRM Kabale District. He is a Member of Parliament for Ndorwa County West Constituency, Kabale District, in the Parliament of Uganda. He is chief of the Scout Board of Uganda. He is the Chairperson of the Uganda National Prayer Breakfast Fellowship.
The Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014 was an act passed by the Parliament of Uganda on 20 December 2013, which prohibited sexual relations between persons of the same sex. The act was previously called the "Kill the Gays bill" in the western mainstream media due to death penalty clauses proposed in the original version, but the penalty was later amended to life imprisonment. The bill was signed into law by the President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni on 24 February 2014. On 1 August 2014, however, the Constitutional Court of Uganda ruled the act invalid on procedural grounds.
Uganda has a very long and, quite permissive, and sometimes violent history regarding the LGBT community, stretching back from the pre-colonial period, through British colonial control, and even after independence.
John "Longjones" Abdallah Wambere is a Ugandan gay rights activist and co-founder of Spectrum Uganda Initiatives, a Kampala-based LGBTI rights advocacy organization with a focus on health education. Because of the threat of violence and persecution he faces in Uganda, Wambere was approved for asylum in the United States by the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services on September 11, 2014. He currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The People Power, Our Power movement is a resistance pressure group in Uganda. It is led by Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, also known as Bobi Wine, who is the MP for Kyadondo East constituency. The movement seeks to unite Ugandans on issues such as ending human rights abuse, corruption and redefining the rule of law, with a focus on young Ugandans. The movement was primarily sparked by civil unrest with Yoweri Museveni's extended presidency, after he announced plans to extend his third-longest tenure in Africa by seeking re-election in 2021.
Anita Annet Among is a Ugandan accountant, lawyer and politician who is the Speaker of the 11th Parliament of Uganda since 2022. She also concurrently serves as the elected member of parliament for the Bukedea District Women Constituency, the same position she held in the 10th Parliament (2016–2021). She was in FDC party before she joined the ruling NRM where she was voted as the Deputy Speaker of the 10th Parliament. She is named in the torture complaint against the Ugandan government that was submitted with the International Criminal Court.
John Baptist Nambeshe is a Ugandan politician and a member of the 11th Ugandan Parliament from Manjiya County in Bududa district currently serving as the Chief Whip of the opposition in Parliament. He is a member of the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) and Deputy President of the party, Eastern Region.
Linda agnes Auma is a Ugandan politician and legislator, she represents the people of Lira district as woman member of parliament in the parliament of Uganda, which she entered on an independent ticket. Auma is the state minister for Gender and culture and the vice chairperson of the National women council. She is also the former Resident district commissioner (RDC) Of Amuru district.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Uganda. The death penalty was likely last carried out in 1999, although some sources say the last execution in Uganda took place in 2005. Regardless, Uganda is interchangeably considered a retentionist state with regard to capital punishment, due to absence of "an established practice or policy against carrying out executions," as well as a de facto abolitionist state due to the lack of any executions for over one decade.
Events in the year 2023 in Uganda.
The Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023 is an act of the Parliament of Uganda that restricts freedom of speech on LGBT topics and introduces harsher penalties for certain types of homosexual acts. On 21 March 2023, the bill was read a third time, and was then sent to President Yoweri Museveni for assent. On 21 April 2023, Museveni returned it to Parliament, which passed it again with minor amendments on 2 May. On 26 May, Museveni signed it into law.