Uganda’s government said Thursday that it’s not concerned about threats by the United States and other countries to cut aid after it enacted legislation outlawing homosexuality.
“The West can keep their ‘aid’ to Uganda over homos, we shall still develop without it,” government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said in a message on Twitter.
Some countries have already frozen or cut aid after President Yoweri Museveni signed the law Monday. It makes homosexual activity punishable by imprisonment and any mention of homosexuality in positive terms illegal.
Western donor countries have criticized Museveni for gagging the Ugandan media, and were pressing heavily for him to block the bill. After he signed it, Museveni warned Western countries against interfering in Uganda’s internal affairs. Countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway were quick to freeze aid or redirect it from the Ugandan government, while others such as Sweden warned that Uganda might suffer economically because of the legislation.