The World Bank has postponed a $90m (£54m) loan to Uganda over its tough anti-gay law

The World Bank has postponed a $90m (£54m)
loan to Uganda over its tough anti-gay law, which
has drawn criticism from around the world.
World Bank officials said they wanted to guarantee
the projects the loan was destined to support
were not going to be adversely affected by the
law.
The loan was intended to boost Uganda’s health
services.
Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo
said the World Bank “should not blackmail its
members”.
The law, enacted on Monday, strengthens already
strict legislation relating to homosexuals.
It allows life imprisonment as the penalty for acts
of “aggravated homosexuality” and also
criminalises the “promotion of homosexuality”.
The law has been sharply criticised by the West,
with donors such as Denmark and Norway saying
they would redirect aid away from the government
to aid agencies.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has called the
law “atrocious”. Both he and South African Nobel
peace laureate Desmond Tutu compared it to anti-
Semitic laws in Nazi Germany or apartheid South
Africa.
A spokesman for the World Bank said: “We have
postponed the project for further review to ensure
that the development objectives would not be
adversely affected by the enactment of this new
law.”
The loan was supposed to be approved on
Thursday to supplement a 2010 loan that focused
on maternal health, newborn care and family
planning.
The World Bank’s action is the largest financial
penalty incurred on the Ugandan authorities since
the law went into force.
In an editorial for the Washington Post, World
Bank President Jim Yong Kim warned that
legislation restricting sexual rights “can hurt a
country’s competitiveness by discouraging
multinational companies from investing or
locating their activities in those nations”.
He said the World Bank would discuss how such
discrimination “would affect our projects and our
gay and lesbian staff members”.
In his view, he adds, fighting “to eliminate all
institutionalised discrimination is an urgent task”.
But Opondo said not everything the West said
was correct and there should be mutual respect
for sovereign states.
“There was a time when the international
community believed slave trade and slavery was
cool, that colonialism was cool, that coups
against African governments was cool,” he told
the BBC.
“I think the best way forward is constructive
engagement but… I think Uganda and Africa in
general should stand up to this blackmail.”
President Yoweri Museveni signed the anti-gay
bill earlier this week, despite international
criticism.
Ugandan authorities have defended the decision,
saying President Museveni wanted “to
demonstrate Uganda’s independence in the face
of Western pressure and provocation”.
Uganda is a very conservative society, where
many people oppose homosexuality.