Parliament cancels 2022 Nyege Nyege Festival

Speaker of Parliament Anita Among asked fellow lawmakers whether the country has decided to “promote tourism at the expense of our children,” according to NTV Uganda.

Among said: “We are not going to allow this function to take” place.

The annual festival, which has not been held since 2019, due to Covid-19, is slated for September 15-18 at Itanda Falls in Jinja.

The festival, which is organised by Talent Africa, and a number of other partners -- is one of the highly-anticipated events on the calendars of people active in the Ugandan partying scene.

Speaker Anita Among at Parliament today Pulse

Woman MP Karenga District Rose Lilly Akello said: "It is an event which promotes immorality, and this immorality is something which is not wanted in our country…. They do a lot of immoral activities there .”

Tororo Woman MP Hon Sarah Opendi said the event had become a breeding ground for sexual immorality.

“In the last Nyege Nyege, we all saw what happened; people having sex in the open, drinking themselves silly and people have been told this event will go on both day and night,” Opendi said.

“It is going to attract all kinds of people from the world who are going to bring non-African acts…While it is ok to enjoy, we have another bigger challenge, we are having our young children being recruited into the LGBTI community.”

Tororo Woman MP Sarah Opendi Pulse

The event comes with a wide-ranging experience because of different stages and offers an opportunity to mix with people from across the globe.

This is not the first time the government has tried to block the event from happening.

In 2018, then ethics minister Simon Lokodo blocked the event, but he later yielded, saying someone above him had okayed the event to happen.

The event, which draws thousands of people, is sponsored by most of the biggest companies in the country and offers multiple business opportunities because it runs for four days and it is a high-end event.

When Lokodo tried to cancel it, he said there is a lot of nudity and sexuality that happens at the event, saying even the name when translated to English means "sex sex".