Opinion:
President Museveni is right
President Museveni should stick on African social independence, Ugandan and African values in relation to family and marriage. He should reject Western Blackmail about foreign aid. African countries are the only who are always facing Western foreign interventions in their internal affairs and governance. If this anti-gay law was signed by another President from another country such as in Asia, South America or Arab World , Western powers would not say anything.
When Western Powers came to colonise Africa, they taught African people that marriage between a man and woman to have children is the core value of the society and Christianity. Now, Western Powers are teaching us that homosexuality is also acceptable. So, what will they teach next time ?
By the way, it is the homosexual peoples who should defend their rights, and not politicians on their behalf.
Even in these Western countries, there are millions of people who are opposed to gay marriage. None of them has been jailed or have been prevented from having food because of their opposition to gay marriage and sexual relationships. We have seen thousands of demonstrations in these Western Countries.
Uganda shrugged off Thursday foreign aid cuts and international criticism of its tough new anti-gay law, saying it could do without Western aid.
"The West can keep their 'aid' to Uganda over homos, we shall still develop without it," government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said in a message on Twitter.On Monday, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed a bill into law which holds that "repeat homosexuals" should be jailed for life, outlaws the promotion of homosexuality and requires people to denounce gays.
The signing of the law came despite fierce criticism from Western nations and key donors, including US President Barack Obama, who has warned that ties between Kampala and Washington would be damaged.
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday compared the "flat-out morally wrong" and "atrocious" law to anti-Semitic legislation in Nazi Germany or apartheid in South Africa.
Diplomats and rights groups had pushed Museveni -- already under fire from key Western donors over alleged rampant graft and for stifling opposition groups and media -- to block the legislation.
Museveni already warned Western nations not to meddle in the east African nation's affairs -- and that he was not afraid of aid being cut -- in a blunt speech after signing the law.
Some donors were quick to punish Kampala by freezing or redirecting aid money, while Sweden's Finance Minister Anders Borg, who visited the country on Tuesday, said the law "presents an economic risk for Uganda".
The Netherlands froze a seven-million-euro subsidy to Uganda's legal system, while Denmark and Norway said they would redirect around six million euros each towards private sector initiatives, aid agencies and rights organisations.
But Opondo said Uganda's government was not worried.
"Western 'aid' to Africa is lucrative and (a) profitable trade, they cannot cut off completely," Opondo said.
"Slave trade, slavery, colonialism, imperialism, and exploitation, Africa must stand up to Western domination."
The passing of the bill was largely a popular move in Uganda, where Museveni -- in power for 28 years -- faces reelection in 2016.
But opposition leader Kizza Besigye has accused the government of using homosexuality as an issue to divert attention from domestic problems.
"Whenever there are some controversial issues in the country, it is brought up and everybody talks about homosexuality," he told AFP on Wednesday, pointing to "scandals of corruption" as well as Kampala's military backing of South Sudan's government against rebel forces.
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