The Other Side Of The Coin

Legalise sex trade? --Prostitution is illegal in Uganda, but no woman has been convicted By Paul Waibale Senior SHOULD prostitution be legalised in Uganda? That is the question that has become a subject of debate in various fora in the country. This is in spite of the fact that in many schools of thought, prostitution is considered the world's oldest profession. But of course the weight attributable to the case for or against legalisation will, by and large, depend on what interpretation one accords the term "professional". We have to appreciate that while doctors, lawyers, journalists, engineers, et cetra, are categorised as professionals, it is linguistically acceptable to speak of professional thieves or professional gamblers. So it is not too far-fetched to refer to prostitutes as professionals whose specialisation is pedaling sex, hence the question whether commercial sex practitioners should be accorded protection of the law. Although prostitution is illegal in Uganda, not a single woman has ever been convicted of the offence of practicing or being engaged in prostitution despite the fact that the law has been on our statute books since the colonial era. Section l3l of the Penal Code states that "Every person who knowingly lives wholly or in part on the earnings of prostitution and every person who in any place solicits or importunes for immoral purposes is guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for seven years." The problem is how that law can be enforced in a country like Uganda where the legal principle governing court proceedings is that an accused person is deemed innocent until proved guilty. Does standing by a lamp post at night or lingering along certain streets or keeping in close proximity with entrances to hotels and night clubs legally constitute evidence that the woman concerned is there to solicit or importune for immoral purposes? If every woman found lingering along a street at night were to be branded a prostitute and prosecuted, the freedom of women to move about freely like men would be unfairly eroded. The legal situation is complicated further by Section l34a which defines a prostitute as "a person who in public or elsewhere regularly and habitually holds herself out as available for sexual intercourse or gratification for monetory or other material gain." The question that is nearly too obvious to ask is how the Police could gather evidence to satisfy a court that a certain woman was "regularly and habitually" holding herself out as available for sex? Given that state of affairs, then on what basis have so many women been arrested in Kampala and dumped in prison on the assumption that they are prostitutes? The Police are applying section l62 (f) which provides that any person who "solicits or loiters for immoral purposes" in a public place, for immoral purposes, is deemed to be idle and disorderly and liable to a sentence of three months imprisonment. The women who have appeared in court have been convicted of being idle and disorderly and not of engaging in prostitution. In my view, although prostitution is theoretically illegal in Uganda today, it is a common practice which the law enforcement does not have the ability to counter. To that extent, the need to legislate in favour of prostitution does not easily attract massive public support, but there is need to explore any advantages such legislation would bring. One advantage of legalising prostitution is that a record of those engaged in the trade could be established so that they are subjected to regular health examinations to curb the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, particularly AIDS. The health examinations would also ensure that any sex workers infected would be accorded appropriate treatment. Another advantage would be to identify all sex workers and require them to obtain licenses and pay taxes. At present the prostitutes pocket all the money they earn while poor income earners such as market vendors, spend substantial parts of their earnings in paying for licenses or meeting market dues. There is also the advantage that any law legalising prostitution would have provisions requiring sex workers to operate within recognised places, and limit their appearance at the gates of hotels and dark street corners. In developed countries where sex workers constitute a formidable work force, such as in Germany, prostitutes have reserved areas of operation. In the city of Hamburg, for example, a whole street named St Paulo Street, is reserved for commercial sex. Instead of watching goods exhibited in the show windows, you see women dressed in only bras and nickers displaying their "human wears." In bars along that street the maids serve in attire that leaves nothing to imagination! In a nutshell, legalising prostitution solves problems and creates others. Ends