KAMPALA – A group of religious leaders including born-agains and Adventists has enrolled a drive to advocating for birth control measures as Uganda strides to achieve middle-income status as well as vision 2040.
Mr Herbert Buyondo, the bishop of Kampala born-again faith, at a meeting organized by the inter-religious council of Uganda at Uganda Muslim Supreme Council, tipped people to use birth control measures saying this will help them have children they are able to take care of.
“God created us in his own image and likeness and gave us the knowledge to use, so you cannot say that God is happy with people who bear children that they cannot take care of,” Buyondo said.
He also cautioned elite pastors on misleading their flock saying they should instead; show them the right path to take.
“We discourage abortion, and allow you to control childbirth using any control method like the use of condoms, exclusive breastfeeding for long, counting your safe days and others more so if you are sure you won’t fertilize the egg,” Buyondo said.
But Hajji Nsereko Mutumba, the spokesperson of UMSC said Muslim faith is against the use of artificial birth control measures and allows the use of natural birth control measures.
He said the religion encourages Muslims to space and plan for their children so that they can have a manageable family.
Mutumba said, “a woman can exclusively breastfeed her baby to delay her next pregnancy as she plans on how to have the next one.”
On his part, Samuel Kizito, a pastor and director of Health/HIV/AIDS of the Seventh-day Adventist church said their faith encourages the use of contraceptives.
Dr. Betty Kyadondo, the director of family health national council said Uganda’s population is rising due to a large number of dependents that are not working.
The census report indicated that Uganda’s population between the productive age of 14 and 64 is slightly over 18m. With 58% of this population group unemployed, it means that Uganda’s total non-utilized labour potential stands at 10.9m as of 2017.
