Parliament wants this year’s edition of Nyege Nyege music festival stopped, saying it promotes sexual immorality.

The four-day popular annual festival that takes place every September on the banks of River Nile in Jinja City has been bringing together artists from across Africa to entertain around 10,000 revellers since September 2018.  

This year’s event was scheduled to take place next week in Jinja, but the Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, stopped it on Tuesday (September 6).

“We are talking about the morality of this country; we are talking about our children. You are trying to promote tourism at the expense of our children? We are not going to allow this function to take place,” Among, who is also the Bukedea Woman MP, said during the plenary session she chaired.

Tororo Woman MP and the chairperson of Uganda Women Parliamentary Association, Sarah Opendi, said during the session that the festival was a breeding ground for sexual immorality.

Over 8,000 foreigners book tickets

Efforts by tourism state minister Martin Mugarra to defend the social event as a hub of tourism met resistance from the House.

Mugarra said over 8,000 foreign tourists had already booked tickets for the event.

When he was still Ethics and Integrity state minister, the late Fr Simon Lokodo banned the festival as an orgy of homosexuality, nudity and drugs akin to "devil worship".

Nyege Nyege, in Luganda, means an irresistible urge to dance.

However, in other local languages it can have a sexual connotation.