His voice reverberates incessantly. He announces his message in a hoarse, tired but firm voice. You crane your neck to see the source of the voice. It’s a young man whose face bears the distinct mark of determination and fierce passion. It’s blistering hot yet he refuses to loosen the tie that appears to clutch to his neck in a stranglehold. His shoes are covered in a thin layer of fine dust. The city is dusty. He, from the look of things, has been prowling the other side of Kampala where the proverbial wretched of the earth reside; the slums. His message is simple, direct and fronted with blunt openness; “Abortion is evil.” “My name is Tandeka Brian, I’m from Human Life Uganda,” he announces.
You recognise him at once- he’s a third year law student. The locals here know him. His face is familiar and before long a few natives gather around the young man wielding a gramophone. Clutched securely under his arm are piles of paper within a file. He is a mobile anti- abortion activist, prowling Kampala slums preaching the dangers of abortion. He distributes a few parchments to the willing residents asking them in Luganda to share with their friends-not light their charcoal stoves. He goes ahead to explain the consequences of abortion.
Motivation
“I was raised by my mother amid abject poverty after my soldier father abandoned us. Ma’am didn’t decide to terminate the pregnancy, and here I am at Makerere University. Most pregnant mothers opt to abort when they feel they have been abandoned and can’t afford to raise a baby, all hope is lost. My mother Molly Nyakaana Adyeeri, inspires me. I’ve lost a number of friends; brilliant youthful female friends; full of life and bustling with energy. I’ve woken the news of their demise, at the altar of illegal abortionists.”
He says enlightening society about the grim consequences of abortion is the only way he can give back to society. The very society that raised him. His journey has been turbulent. He narrates the troubles of growing up in similar neighbourhoods. “I trust a few lives and futures would have been saved if the message I preach had arrived earlier,” he says. “The government hardly cares about us. Politicians only return towards elections when they need us, if teenage mothers were granted assistance they’d reconsider abortion. “See brother, young girls are faced with two grim choices; risking their lives through an abortion or facing a society that scorns young mothers, an uncertain future coupled with the financial demands of motherhood,” he, in a voice full of emotion laments.
“These neighbourhoods have no conscience, society is harsh, it ridicules teenage mothers, branding them sluts yet it mourns when a girl dies at a botched abortion,” he adds.
Challenges
“Well, when I took on this task, I knew it wouldn’t be easy, braving the blistering February heat in addition to balancing this quest and books. Hitler once said that if you tell a lie too often, it will be believed to be true. The compromised elites are a big challenge to the extent that they try to shut you down since most of them are in positions of influence and cannot jeopardise the interests of their funders. For instance, all lawyers that I have approached in my bid to petition court to nullify the 2015 abortion guidelines, have surprisingly shown disinterest even when they couldn’t help but agree that the guidelines are contrary to the written laws of Uganda,” the young, energetic students says.
When asked more about this he added. “Pro-life activities around the world share this challenge. The population control agencies are wealthy and are ready to fund any anti-life group that is well established. For example, the, WHO, UNICEF, BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION of the GAVI Alliance,IPPF, USAID, UKAID. These are very powerful organizations which fund the anti-life organizations like Marie Stopes, CEHURD etc. Remember that some of these organizations withdrew their funding when Uganda passed the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014. People here are frustrated too, so often they feel I’m only using them as stepping stones to my dreams. They’ve been used by people who abuse this vocation.
My motivation is not just for abortion but for anything that threatens human life. I met Fr. Jonathan Opio the country director of Human Life Uganda who issued me with information on the facts of life. All these facts checked out in my own independent research. If you read the NSSM-200 (the Kissinger report), the Malthusian catastrophe et al, the ideas of Margaret Sanger, Marie Stopes among others, you will be able to know the agenda behind abortion, contraceptives, homosexuality and other anti-life strategies. Exposing such lies motivates me.
For instance the 2015 abortion guidelines give children as young as ten years the discretion to make their own decisions to undertake a full range of contraceptives and abortion services without the consent of parents. And these services will be available at their schools where no teacher, nurse or guardian should deny them to enjoy such a right. The same guidelines at page 4 state that abortion is allowed in Uganda to preserve the life and health of the mother yet S. 224 of the Uganda Penal Code only provides for ‘life’ not health.
They further give ‘health’ a wide definition which was adopted by WHO. Do you think your visits are impacting? Yes they are, the people that have signed against this policy are often furious to learn that they have been kept in the dark. This explains why we were able to collect over 500 signatures within 3 days of the campaign. (Sign Against Abortion Campaign) before we got arrested in Busega by police officers mistaking the campaign to be politically motivated since it coincided with the 2016 elections.”
What areas have you visited?
“I have personally been to Gulu, Otuke, Lira, Katikamu and Kampala. But Human Life Uganda has been in quite a number of places around Uganda. We launched the campaign in Kampala and we have covered areas of Kyebando, Kamokya, Bukoto and Busega where we got arrested. We launched a Sign against Abortion Campaign this year and we intend to collect over 2 million signatures and present them to government in a petition against the 2015 abortion guidelines.
Last word?
The government should give teenage mothers a glimmer of hope to encourage them give birth instead of aborting out of sheer desperation. His advice to university students is simple, abstain or use protection. He condemns abortion, citing dangers of the vice like fistula and death. He plays the moral card; abortion defiles ones body physically and the physiological torment that a woman lives with, haunts her for all eternity. When asked about the rather sensitive feminist defence on women’s right to their bodies. He argues that the unborn babies have a constitutional right to life. “Would you be alive if your mother had taken the abortion route?” He sarcastically asks.
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