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In 1886, King Mwanga II in what is now Uganda burnt to death Christian missionaries who opposed his homosexual predilection for page boys.

So when Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni this week signed a new anti-gay bill in the face of widespread condemnation by the international community, his argument that homosexuality is an un-African western import was undermined by his country's history.

President Museveni, pictured recently.

The law bans homosexual activity and stipulates life imprisonment for those found guilty of same-sex marriage and or ‘aggravated’ homosexuality, including sex with a minor or someone disabled, but stops short of the death sentence proposed in earlier drafts.

The legislation may reflect the country’s conservative social mores but says more about the way homosexuality has been exploited by the domestic interest groups for political gain. Championing the bill has helped Mr Museveni see off challengers for the leadership of his National Resistance Movement party, halt wider political opposition and divert attention from the failings of his government.

But his decision could also threaten Uganda’s economy. The World Bank has delayed a $90m loan, the US is reviewing its $485m relationship and a number of other countries are pledging to cut at least some of their aid. The country’s currency dropped by 2 per cent in the days after the bill was signed.

“I don’t think deep down in his heart he intended to sign the bill but it was a trade-off because the anti-gay lobby had become so strong,” said Kikonyogo Kivumbi, executive director of the Uganda Health and Science Press Association, gay rights group. “The NRM said: ‘Fine we are going to allow you to stand unopposed at the party election, but then we also want you to sign this’.”

Mr Kivumbi pointed out that the bill is the latest example of Ugandan governments making scapegoats of vulnerable minority groups. He pointed to Idi Amin’s accusations that Indians were wrecking the economy in the 1970s, and his successor Milton Obote running Rwandans out of the country in the 1980s. Now homosexuals are paying the price for a government regularly mired in corruption scandals, he said.

Although Mr Museveni avoided signing the legislation for five years, analysts say that international pressure helped push him into approving a watered-down version of the bill.

Mr Museveni’s spokesman said “western pressure and provocation” pressed the president into signing; Mr Museveni himself said the only reason he approved the bill was because of “arrogant and careless Western groups”, whom he said “carelessly handle other issues concerning Africa”.

The Ugandan leader has shown himself to be adept at reframing domestic political crisis as a populist tussle between Africa and the west. Last year, he referred to the International Criminal Court as a vengeful “blackmail” tool by western backers intent on installing African leaders of its choosing. He helped sponsor an African Union motion against the court that eventually caused a split at the UN Security Council.

Ugandan analysts say the threatening position adopted by the US – which labelled the original version of the bill, that included the death penalty, so ‘odious’ that Washington would reconsider its support for the country – not only made it impossible for Mr Museveni not to sign into law, but also gave him the chance to adopt an anti-western position and score political points at home.

The country may be able to withstand the economic fallout of the decision. Uganda is due to start pumping oil in 2016 and maintains it can do without aid. The World Bank and other western donors often redirect aid rather than stopping it altogether, as in the case of Rwanda, which was publicly accused by the UN of creating and supplying a proxy rebel group in neighbouring Congo for its own ends. Moreover, Uganda is a key security ally in the region, donating troops for a UN-backed force against Islamist jihadists in Somalia.

“When the US issued these statements filled with threats they hardened positions – he [Mr Museveni] was forced by Obama,” said Ugandan commentator Andrew Mwenda, who pointed out quiet diplomacy would have been more effective in fighting the legislation. “Because of colonialism we become very sensitive when western countries issue instructions on what we should do.”

By Katrina Manson in Nairobi, Financial Times.

Ask your average political nerd to guess Noam Chomsky’s favourite newspaper and few would tender the Financial Times. But the emeritus professor of linguistics and philosophy at MIT, revered the world over by left-wing intellectuals and social activists, believes the pink ‘un is the only global newspaper “that tells the truth”.

High quality global journalism requires investment.

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Fuck that.

You should pay me.

And here's The Economist on why Diplomatic Pressure Did Not Stop An Absurd Law.