KAMPALA – The government has in a quick decision overturned Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo’s cancellation of the much-publicized MTN Uganda – sponsored festival Nyege Nyege, saying the mandate to make the decision lay with another ministry.
“[I have] just spoken to Internal Affairs Minister Gen. Jeje Odongo, he states Nyege Nyege organizers should go ahead with preparations for their function. Further review meeting involving all stakeholders is scheduled for 10.00 am tomorrow [Wednesday],” Ofwono tweeted.
Fr. Lokodo had during a hastily arranged press conference on Tuesday evening announced that the government would not allow the 4-day-Festival in Jinja to continue, affirming that the event is evil in nature and intended to encourage young people to embrace homosexuality.
Fr Lokodo, who had a day earlier written to Internal Affairs minister Jeje Odongo calling for the cancellation of the event, said: “This ugly thing called Nyege Nyege is not taking place this year. We have already evaluated how much losses will come. We shall save the image of this country but not allow this to take place for the two days and one night.”
The event that attracts thousands of revellers takes place at the Nile Resort Beach in Jinja from September 6 to September 9.
However, the minister Lokodo insisted that the very name of the festival “means sex, sex or urge for sex.”
“There will be nudity and sexuality done at any time of the hour. There will be open sex,” he told journalists at the media centre.
“A considerable amount of drugs have been smuggled into the country and available intelligence indicates that they are headed for the Nyege Nyege festival,” he added.
He said the cancellation of the function followed a high-level meeting attended by several security chiefs, including the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen David Muhoozi.
He added that the location of the festival (near the Owen Falls Dam) compromises the security of the country’s strategic national assets.
“Considering that the event is attracting international personalities, it would have required a better security plan, but unfortunately the organizers of this event did not involve our security personnel in planning for the safety of the national assets.”
When it was put to him that the cancellation was to have an impact on the tourism sector, Fr Lokodo said: “Let foreigners not come to Uganda for sex. If you are coming for sexual reasons worse still homosexuality and LGBTQ, stay away. On that basis, Nyege Nyege is cancelled.”
