Government is preparing to procure a pornography detecting software at a cost of Ugshs 2.6Billion, the Ethics and Integrity Minister, Father Simon Lokodo has said. The detector is intended to be installed on cell phones, television sets as well as computers.
Fr. Lokodo who was tabling the proposal before the Parliamentary Committee said that the move is to aid in the enforcement of the 2014 Anti-Pornography Act.
“We want telecom companies to have ‘software filters’ which can track and block public access to ‘pornographic material’. In countries like China, Korea and Rwanda, this software is successful,” the Minister told the Committee.
The Ethics and Integrity Ministry will further establish an Anti-Pornography committee as provided in the Anti-Pornography Act.
The proposal has since met an outburst reaction from the public domain on social media with several of Ugandans questioning the logic in government’s priorities.
Yvone Mpambara in a tweet asked; “We have poor roads, hospitals, schools etc and the best u can think of doing with 2.6b is to buy a pornography machine? Are you serious?”
Another similar reaction from Omuteso on twitter stated; “We don’t have money for health, education, agriculture and others but we can afford to procure ‘pornographic detector machines’.”
Grace Natabalo expressed concern on why the Minister seems to remain silent on other critical ethical issues.
“Fr. Lokodo should be speaking strongly about rape, defilement, sex for marks at universities if he wants to stick to sexual issues,” Natebalo tweeted.
Collin Rukundo also commented; “Corruption is an ethical issue as well. Lokodo shouldn’t leave this to the Attorney General. Pornography is a non issue.”
“I don’t understand Lokodo’s obsession with sexual immorality. Ethics and Integrity are much bigger than that,” said Ronald Azairwe.
Following the enactment of the controversial law in 2014, numerous activists from the civil society spectrum strongly opposed the law for having vague provisions. Feminists also criticized the sections of the law that intended to ban mini-skirts saying it deprived women of their inherent rights and freedoms.
Women’s rights activist, Miria Matembe was especially critical about the question of how the law determines that females dress with an ‘intent’ to arouse men’s sexual feelings.