Uganda Police and Nyege Nyege Festival organisers have signed an MoU prohibiting a number of issues. Among the outstanding conditions include; banning processions, under 18s, s3x and unfettered access to police both day and night.
The festival set to take place between September 5-10 at Nile Discovery, Njeru had been called off by Minister of Ethics and Intergrity Fr. Simon Lokodo citing promotion of homosexuality, ‘open s3x’, among other allegations.
However, after a meeting held today, government gave the international arts and culture event the green light but following a set of stringent conditions.
Below is the list of conditions.
1. The organisers shall provide police a detailed program of the event to facilitate deployment of security personnel.
2. There shall be no processions to and from the venue
3. The police shall provide security at the venue, in addition to Tight Security, a private security firm contracted for the purpose by event organisers.
4. The Police will have unfettered access to the venue and all facilities used by the organisers any time of the day or night.
5. The purpose of the event is the promotion of culture, local music and tourism. The event shall be held only in a manner consistent with this purpose.
6. Accreditation at the venue shall be done by Uganda Police Force in liaison with event organisers.
7. The organisers undertake to ensure that the event shall be accessed only by adults and will ensure no person under the age of 18 shall be allowed at the venue after 6PM. In the event of doubt to the age of a person perceived to be a child, production of evidence of age shall be mandatory.
8. The organisers undertake to ensure that sanitation facilities at the venue shall be sufficient for the 5000 participants expected.
9. The organisers shall ensure that first and other necessary medical arrangements shall be put in place with clear areas of exist in case of emergency and fire escape routes.
10. The organisers undertake to provide guidelines at the entrance and in other strategic conspicuous points at the venue, clearly prohibiting use of drugs, acts homosexuality, open sex and any other act considered immoral or unacceptable by the culture of the people of Uganda.
11. The parties agree that security is of paramount importance and should the police consider that the security measures in place are not adequate, the event shall be called off at the expense of the organisers.
Government reserves the right to call off the festival if any of the above conditions is not met.