On 20 December 2013, the Ugandan Parliament passed the ‘Anti-Homosexuality Bill’, which is now law. The law not only broadens the criminalisation of adult consensual same-sex relations, but lays down prison term for anybody defending LGBTI rights as well as health and sexual education providers. LGBTI rights defender Clare Byarugaba explained the context and potential consequences of the Bill. Watch

Uganda’s gay organisations have been forced to operate underground due to public hostility and state persecution of their members . The formation of the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CSCHRCL) has been vocal in campaigning for the rights of gay people and exposing the harmful operations of right wing American religious fundamentalists in the country

NGOs need urgent soul-searching. They have hogged public space that they have deprived ordinary citizens of the right to speak for themselves. The Ugandan NGOs have stifled the citizens’ voices.

The current US-Taliban talks now remove any pretexts Kagame and Museveni might have not to talk to the FDLR and to the LRA, respectively. Tanzanian President, Jakaya Kikwete’s proposal for talks involving all parties in the Great Lakes region to find a permanent political solution to the problems of the region must be urgently heeded

They provide a model for other youth in diaspora to emulate: keeping in touch with one’s culture and religion; how to settle in a foreign land; creativity in employment; long-term investment in education