U.N. chief Ban Ki-Moon rejects Kutesa’s homophobic comments
The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has distanced himself from derisive comments towards the LGBT communities made by Sam Kutesa, President of the U.N. General Assembly while in his native Uganda last week.
Kutesa who barely survived an online campaign to prevent him from becoming the UN GA President last year on account of his homophobia and ties to corruption and embezzlement charges last week referred to the LGBT community as “frogs” while speaking to Uganda media.
After he was asked about LGBT critics who opposed his candidacy, on January 28, Uganda’s leading independent newspaper The Daily Monitor reported in an article under the headline “Kutesa lashes out at pro-gay activists,” that the UN GA President said: “No matter how much noise the frogs make, they cannot stop a cow from drinking water.”
When The Black Star News contacted U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s office for reaction, a spokesperson Farhan Haq responded: “On the question of LGBT rights, including in Uganda, you have seen the positions that the Secretary-General has taken and he maintains those positions.”
In a January 13 speech while in India, two weeks before Kutesa’s latest anti-Gay broadside, Ban Ki-Moon said: I staunchly oppose the criminalization of homosexuality. He also said, I speak out because laws criminalizing consensual, adult same-sex relationships violate basic rights to privacy and to freedom from discrimination and added, We have to fight for the equality of all members of our human family regardless of any difference, including sexual orientation.
The spokesperson didn’t respond to inquiries from The Black Star News about kutesa’s company Entebbe Handling Services (ENHAS) billing the United Nations about $30 million through a contract that may have been obtained fraudulently since he didn’t disclose to the UN that even while Uganda’s foreign affairs minister he was Chairman and principal owner of ENHAS.
The ENHAS connection was reported by The Black Star News. After the revelation the UN disabled links on its websites detailing the bills submitted by Kutesa’s company ENHAS from 2008 to 2014.
The invoices ranged from $640,000 to $3,410,352; The Black Star News captured the links before they were disabled and the total payments.
Last year Uganda’s dictator of 29 years Gen. Yoweri Museveni signed a law that called for life imprisonment for LGBTs for “aggravated homosexuality.” Gen. Museveni referred to Gays as “disgusting” and called for their blood sample to be drawn so that their “abnormality” could be studied by Ugandan scientists.
President Barack Obama denounced the law, which was struck down temporarily on a technicality by a Uganda court as “odious.”
Members of Parliament from Museveni’s and Kutesa’s ruling National Resistance Movement party have vowed to reintroduce the bill; the court said it was voted on without a quorum.
Among leading U.S. elected officials who opposed Kutesa’s ascendancy to the UN GA Presidency were: U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer; U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel; and, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer.
Since his latest bigoted comments 165 more people have signed the Change.org petition which now also calls for Kutesa’s resignation, bringing the total to 15,807.
