On Saturday, Former Ethics and Integrity State Minister Fr. Simon Lokodo was announced dead. He died aged 64 years.
While still the Minister of Ethics, Lokodo had no shortage of critics due to his controversial bills and comments that massively attracted mixed responses.
At the age of 49, Lokodo first joined politics to contest in a special election on June 29, 2006, following the death of the incumbent Member of Parliament.
He was ex-communicated from the Catholic Church by Pope Benedict XVI when he joined politics. He won the by-election and began representing Dodoth County, Kaabong District, in the Parliament.
In February 2009, he was appointed to the Cabinet as the Minister of State for Industry & Technology. In the cabinet reshuffle of May 27, 2011, he was relocated to the Ethics & Integrity portfolio, replacing Nsaba Buturo. In the cabinet reshuffle of March 1, 2015, he retained his cabinet post.
Firstly, Lokodo is well known for challenging homosexuality in all forms. In 2012, he and the police raided and shut down a gay activist workshop. He was quoted as saying, “I have closed this conference because it’s illegal. We do not accept homosexuality in Uganda.”
In February 2014, Lokodo tabled the ‘Miniskirt bill’ on the floor of parliament. He said that clothes that are considered revealing or sexually provocative were to be outlawed.
“If you dress in such a way that you irritate the mind and excite the people then you are badly dressed; if you draw the attention of the other person outside there with a malicious purpose of exciting and stimulating him or her into sex,” Lokodo stated.
The bill met extreme resistance from women who held numerous protests.
Lokodo also dominated the headlines when he called for the removal of condoms from Parliament, he met a lot of mixed responses.
In 2015, Lokodo attacked ‘lunchtime’ sex as he called on the Police to raid guesthouses and arrest people having sex during lunchtime.
“People have reduced their lives to sex activity only! Lunchtime is for meals and rest! But people now meet prostitutes or people they have lured at that time! The laws are very clear; the Penal Code says prostitution is criminal. I condemn it and since it is illegal, the Police are the instituted enforcers. They will comb these places and if you are found, you will be taken to the courts of law,” he said.
As expected, Lokodo was castigated for attacking ‘lunchtime sex’ as many said it was invasion of their privacy.
Another Lokodo controversy came in 2017 after the creation of the Pornography Control Committee (PCC). The PCC was operationalized to fight all kinds of pornographic content.
To achieve that, Lokodo said that a pornography detector would arrive in the country to detect deleted or pornographic materials stored on people’s computers.
The machine was to cost $88,000 (about Shs318 million). However, to date, the machine has never arrived.
Lastly, Lokodo became arguably the most hated man in Uganda when he tried to stop the 2018 MTN Nyege Nyege Festival, which was scheduled for September 6th to 9th.
Lokodo said that he could not accept an event that’s covered by open sex.
“There will be nudity and sexuality done at any time of the hour. There will be open sex. The very name of the festival is provocative. It means “sex, sex”,” he said.
Fortunately for the partygoers, Lokodo lost as the event was held.