One woman, 100 children!

By Deo K Tumusiime

So much has been said about fallen Ugandan Professor Mukiibi and how he's left a record of anything close to 100 children from various women.

There as even fun on social media with several other kids said to have been flown in from South Sudan purportedly for the same man.  Unfortunately, rather than focus on the milestones the gentleman registered notably for the education sector, everyone was happy to score points by lamenting about how the gentleman fathered so many kids with different women, some reportedly underage. Who can defend the voiceless man, son of God?

 I often tend to desist from falling onto bandwagons of condemnation.  For starters, right or wrong, Mukiibi is dead and buried, meaning that even if he had a case to answer, he cannot defend himself anymore. Isn't it only logical that we should let the man rest in peace?

 Yet while there may be ground to blow the whistle against the dead man, on account of what many in society have called- shameful behaviour by a prominent personality, this in my view is also catered for in Mukiibi's favour. Yes, for all the merits of even the strongest laws in the world, none is capable of effectively legislating against sex. Year in, year out, more and more men shall continue to be faulted and arrested over sexual offences, provided we adamantly refuse to understand and appreciate the gist of why God created sex and for that matter, men and women as they are. Forget about what religion says. Forget about culture. Forget about your perception of right and wrong. Think of humanity in terms of a little child born naked from its mother….no religion, no culture, no name, no clothes, simply human. As the baby grows, it adopts all sorts of beliefs that ultimately determine what (and not who) we are. Inside our suits and dresses, remains the original human being as created by God….no one can change this.

 God in God's mighty wisdom, created us all male and female with a clear mandate. That for the sustenance of the world, a man shall mate with a woman and the resulting product shall be a child. The key words here are; Man, woman, and child. I know human beings have over time drafted "Pleasure" into the equation, but we all know that this is subjective and therefore not guaranteed. And whereas Biblical writers and interpreters attempt to quote God as suggesting that a man was mandated to have one wife, the same bible falls short in explaining why despite this provision, God the creator still allowed men (and women I suppose) to have feelings over and above their one wife. Needless to emphasize, we all know that Solomon the man of God is reported to have had 500 wives and nearly as many concubines. Notice also that nothing is mentioned about the ages of the said wives-but this is a man that lived like us, and was a Godly man at that.

 Well, away from Solomon, I must quickly draw us back to reality. His could have been merely exaggerated and figurative or even fiction, but truthfully, any normal man falls in love countless times irrespective of whatever laws may suggest otherwise. And when a man falls in love with a woman, anything is bound to happen, going back to the original mandate of procreation. Many of the sex encounters majority of men engage in, may not result in children because of the introduction of contraception, but they easily could. As such, it seems very convenient to make a show of a certain Professor Mukiibi, so long as everyone else that engages sexually does it in private and has no results to get them pinned. Doesn't the Bible itself even suggest (Matthew 5:28) that whenever you look at a woman lustfully, you already have had sex with her? This simply manifests our true sense of humanity. How many of us have fallen short to this level?

 Look, one single man could have 100 children with 100 different women in one single year. Conversely, it would take one woman 100 years to produce 100 children with 100 different men. Without going into the merits of human-prescribed moral standards, this should tell something about the God-given roles of men and women. As such, before anyone faults their man for peeping into other women's skirts, one's God to understand what it truly means to be a man.

 Well, I know human rights advocates have sharpened their pangs to erase the legacy of Mukiibi by labelling him everything negative, accusing him of having sex with minors, but let us face reality again: Who sets the age of consent? Everyone will definitely say the Constitution does. Question: Where was the Constitution when Mukiibi was sleeping with these minors? Question: Why did God allow these minors to have sexual feelings? Question: How come this did not come up when Mukiibi was still alive?  Question and answer: After all the condemnations, will Mukiibi be the last of his kind? Answer: Definitely not, for as long as men remain men and women remain women as per God's original creation.

 First, we are human beings before whatever rules and guidelines that are nurtured into us attempt to re-define us. Every culture, religion or political association has got its own values, which it expects its followers observe. However, none of this can surpass or ever replace our state of being human. Many may hideously conceal their identity, but inside every skirt is the original woman and inside every trouser, the original man….and this, is what gives us identity.

The writer is a communications consultant