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JOHANNESBURG. – Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has lashed out at Western countries for criticising Uganda’s parliament after it approved a Bill that is likely to impact the rights of the LGBTQI community.

Museveni said the West can not dictate to Uganda, how it should handle issues related to culture and religion.

Museveni on Tuesday began a state visit to South Africa in a bid to encourage better economic ties between Uganda and Africa’s most developed economy.

He has defended his country’s decision to close the United Nations Human Rights Council office in Uganda. He says they had developed their own capacity to monitor rights compliance.

“We have a Ugandan human rights commission which is mandated by the Constitution. So having others which are not part of our constitution system is first of all unnecessary, but also diversioning. Because some people may not know the difference.”

Uganda is facing criticism for its decision not to renew its agreement to host the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights beyond its current three-year term which ended in February this year.

Another thorny issue is the proposed bill affecting the rights of the LGBTQI community and Museveni blames the Western nations. “This is the mistake of the Western countries. They are the ones who are provoking the English in what is insufferable. You can’t put up with their nonsense because nobody concentrates so much on homosexual. Nobody is hunting them.”

Museveni arrived in South Africa on Tuesday to strengthen trade and political ties between Pretoria and Kampala. He recently spoke to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“What I told him is that Uganda has no food problem. Because in Uganda, we have a lot of food … this is not the case in other countries. But I wanted to assure him that some other African countries are strong economically.”

Museveni said African countries should work together to fight global challenges such as unstable economies, especially in some parts of the African continent.

Making brief remarks ahead of the meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa, Museveni emphasized the importance of intracontinental trade, while highlighting some of the challenges that were making this difficult to achieve. – sabcnews.com