Friends
Can we as Ugandans raise UNAA as a success story of Ugandans in diaspora? And
here is the tragedy of Uganda, this is a very long article {Yes I have called
it an article when Ocen Nekyon would not qualify it as such if I had written it
with the very same and exact words} but as it starts with explaining to us how
it is a functioning and successful organization, it fails to list a single
thing the organization has done/achieved so far. This article does not hand us
a report card of UNAA. Go back and read this article word for word, and please
do not jump paragraphs as we read these things usually, but read it word for
word. You will not see a single thing listed as a sign of a successful
organization. What this article does is to show you the holes and stupidity and
malfunction into the system, it is to show you why and how we have failed as
Ugandans at home and as Ugandans in diaspora. And this is why Museveni has lead
us for this long, he manages UNAA to a point that if you have a war amongst
your selves as Ugandans in diaspora, he supplies you a paper to go after each
other. This writing is exactly why I denounced being a Ugandan, man I simply
had no time for this silliness/crap. I have no time of nibbling on going after
each other and destroy each other privately rather publicly. We are going
nowhere and we will never succeed as Ugandans as this piece very clearly
demonstrates, for this going after each other is the food we diet on. Uganda
and Ugandans are was were will always be waaayyyyy too fucked up for me to hope
for even a single Malt inch of success.
And Gees I keep on using that French.
EM
On the 49th
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ocen Nekyon
Sent: Saturday, February 01, 2014 7:34 AM
To: Ugandans At Heart At Heart
Subject: {UAH} Ugandan North American Association - Cries of a wolf
http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/652039-ugandan-north-american-association-cries-of-a-wolf.html
Ugandan North American Association – Cries of a wolf
<http://www.newvision.co.ug/newvision_cms/newsimages/image/unaa.jpg> By Moses
Ocen Nekyon
If one ever needed real life proof that Ugandans take pride in their Ugandan
identity and origin, it is the continued existence of the Ugandan North
American Association (UNAA). With UNAA, Ugandans in North America have
succeeded where no other African immigrant community has succeeded.
Outside Uganda’s borders, several groups of Ugandans have tried to associate
with varying degrees of success and mostly failure. This means UNAA is by far
the largest and most successful conglomeration of Ugandans in the world.
UNAA’s members have however had to learn on the job how to keep this
association vibrant. While the fundamental structures of the association remain
strong, UNAA goes through periods of introspection every time they elect new
leaders.
The last UNAA Elections at the beginning of September 2013 in Dallas, Texas
were no different. It is however quite misleading to interpret the passionate
debates such elections generate as a crisis as alluded to by the Dr. Opiyo
Oloya, in his December 18th 2013 New Vision article “UNAA in Deep in Crisis.”
The losing side will always cry foul and make every effort to paint a picture
of a falling house. It is a familiar drumbeat but where UNAA really matters,
with its active membership and with a fully functional and disciplined
Executive Committee, UNAA is on a rock solid foundation and still very much in
business. It is telling that the writer Dr. Opiyo Oloya failed to mention that
he is an interested party in the dispute as he is the Secretary of the UNAABOT.
What started the current jostling within some parts of UNAA’s leadership and
the passionate debates make for a very interesting reading. It is the typical
but highly intriguing story of following the money. A quick review of recent
events lays the best foundation for a clear understanding of the issues making
all the waves in the limited world of UNAA’s leadership circles.
UNAA promulgated a new constitution in 2010 and the 2013 election was the first
to test several new requirements. One of the new requirements was that all
voters be registered at least 30 days before the election.
There was also a requirement that any electoral complaint not resolved by the
Electoral Commission (EC) would be referred to the Board of Trustees within 4
weeks or before the election, whichever came first. The new constitution made
UNAA’s Board of Trustees (BOT) the interpreters of the new constitution and
gave them only the duty to recommend with cause any action against any elected
officials.
Also, any change to this constitution required a two-thirds approval by the
UNAA Council of Representatives and a simple majority by the members at the
Annual General Meeting.
That is the legalese and it was supplanted on an organization, which was the
target of some key players with old financial scores to settle. Notable among
these; the well-known Toronto, Canada based Pediatrician and otherwise affable
Dr. Muniini Mulera and New York based Architect Mr. Alexander Zabasajja who
have been trying to recoup almost $20,000 they lost in the ill-advised
miscalculation to host the UNAA convention in Kampala, Uganda in 2000, which
affected attendance at the UNAA Detroit Convention 2001.
These two had finally succeeded in getting the then UNAA President Francis
Ssenoga to commit UNAA to assume their long-standing personal debt without the
approval of the UNAA Executive Committee and UNAA Council.
They had miserably failed to get similar commitments from previous UNAA
Presidents who had long maintained that the Mulera-Zabasajja debt was not
UNAA’s responsibility and for that position there was no love lost between
Mulera-Zabasajja and the subsequent UNAA leaderships after 2001.
With the 2013 UNAA Elections coming up; it therefore made sense for the
Mulera-Zabassajja axis to throw their lot behind Francis Ssenoga’s 2013
Presidential re-election bid albeit privately. The mild mannered Francis
Ssenoga was considered a safe bet.
A Software Engineer, he had been on UNAA’s leadership team for almost a decade
and was the kind of hands off and laid back leader the BoT could easily
control. Without any opposition from the old guard his re-election seemed to be
a foregone conclusion for those who gravely underestimated Ssenoga’s youthful
opponent, Mr. Brian Mushana Kwesiga. Kwesiga, also an engineer, was as
brilliant strategic planner as he was a hardworking mobilizer and critically
one who had read and internalized UNAA’s new constitution.
He was at the tail end of a 3 year long strategy in which he had mobilized a
core team of dedicated and youthful Ugandans in Dallas, lured the UNAA election
convention to his home city in Dallas and established valuable relationships
with core UNAA insiders within the ruling establishment.
And so the terrain was set with everything moving along predictably until the
deadline for voter registration passed and the EC made the voters register
public. Voters from the convention home state of Texas had registered in such
large numbers thanks to the great mobilization skills of then Presidential
Candidate Mr. Brian Kwesiga.
The then UNAA President, Mr. Francis Ssenoga who was running for re-election
read this as a clear advantage to Mr. Kwesiga and quickly found a sympathetic
ear in the BoT Chairman Dr. Muniini Mulera and Alexander Zabasajja and a couple
of other BoT members.
As they would later discover their blinding resolve to get repaid in an Ssenoga
Presidency inadvertently accelerated the downward spiral of Mr. Francis
Ssenoga’s re-election fortunes.
Ignoring a clear rule that required the Electoral Commission (EC) to operate
independently of any UNAA leadership organ, the BoT asked the EC to extend the
voter registration deadline to less than the constitutionally mandated 30 days
to election day. The EC appropriately cited the constitution and rejected the
recommendation.
Checked, the BoT then lobbied the UNAA Council members loyal to Mr. Francis
Ssenoga, some of them also up for re-election and implored them to pass a
resolution to amend the constitution to extend the voter registration period.
That effort in the UNAA Council also failed to meet the required two-thirds
majority threshold to bring Dr. Muniini Mulera’s desired motion to the AGM.
But Dr. Muniini Mulera would not let up, he still went ahead and in clear
violation of UNAA’s constitution presented that motion to amend the
constitution to UNAA’s members at the AGM in Dallas without the
constitutionally mandated UNAA Council approval. By an overwhelming vote, the
UNAA at the AGM in Dallas members roundly rejected Dr. Muniini Mulera’s motion.
The election came and went and Brian Mushana Kwesiga was comfortably elected
UNAA President. With this election UNAA had also received a massive injection
of a new generation of leaders – people who were not beholden to any old
alliances or squabbles.
A couple of weeks later the 16 new UNAA Council Members, UNAA’s version of a
parliament, assembled to elect the Speaker of the Council. This vote ended in
an 8 all draw.
In accordance with the constitution, UNAA Vice President Mr. Monday Atigo cast
the deciding vote and Eng. Nicholas Wakou, part of the new breed beat out
old-timer Mr. Edriss Kironde to become Speaker. Flabbergasted, the losing
council of 8 (C8) pounced on the new breed youth Councilor from Canada, Mr.
Rahim Kabagambe, who had voted against them.
They feigned any knowledge of him and trusting they would find a sympathetic
ear once again in the badly bruised egos of Dr. Muniini Mulera’s BoT, lodged a
petition to get Kabagambe removed from the UNAA Council for not having attended
the UNAA Convention.
The Mulera-Zabasajja axis in the BoT could not have asked for a better set of
circumstances. If only they could upset the 8 vs. 8 balances in the UNAA
Council by kicking out the new breed Mr. Kabagambe, the C8 would deliver a
precious UNAA council resolution to repay the Muniini-Zabasajja debt.
Dr. Muniini Mulera who was now visibly leading the charge fumbled into the
petition completely blinded by his desired outcome. In this haste he
overlooked the glaring fact that the statute of limitations on that electoral
petition had long expired with the election.
He then modified the C8 petition, throwing out its initial basis and then
completely expanding its scope into a witch-hunt to find anything to
incriminate the youthful Mr. Kabagambe. The BoT did not even grant the Youth
Councilor so much as a hearing and based on the most incompetent attempt to
discover the facts, the BoT issued a ruling to expel the youth representative
from the UNAA Council.
They congratulated themselves on a job well done and the Muniini-Zabasajja axis
most likely started counting their money. They also went to bed confident that
they finally had the new UNAA President’s attention and respect.
President Brian Kwesiga reminded the BoT of their catalogue of unconstitutional
missteps and urged them to abide by the new constitution. He wasted no time in
reminding them on who wielded real power in UNAA - UNAA’s members, who are
constitutionally UNAA's supreme organ and the only UNAA organ that can remove
an elected UNAA leader after a vote in the UNA Council.
Despite the fact that the UNAA BOT and the C8 all privately recognize that the
BoT’s ruling violated the constitution, they continue to hold out arguing the
need to save face and to be respected as the elders they feel they are.
It is a testament to how out of touch they are with the generational change
that they would expect Mr. Brian Kwesiga, who had just won an election thanks
to mobilizing a phenomenal 165% increase in UNAA's membership, to kowtow to
their unconstitutional demands.
Lost in all this is the blatant attempt by the UNAA BOT to blackmail the UNAA
President, Mr. Brian Kwesiga in a meeting on November 18th, 2013 to accept
their demands that among other things, he stops recognizing Mr. Rahim Kabagambe
as a duly elected member of the UNAA Council (Powers that neither the UNAA BOT
or the UNAA President is granted in the Constitution), and if he does not
accede to the UNAA BOT demands, the UNAA BOT would proceed to issue emails,
press releases and all forms of communications attacking the character of the
UNAA President and his Executive Committee in the hopes of discouraging people
from registering for the UNAA San Diego Convention.
Word on the ground is that the C8 and some members of the UNAA BOT are in the
process of undermining the registration of the UNAA San Diego Convention, which
is treasonous in it self. In fact in a previous UNAA BOT meeting on November
11th, 2013 when asked to deny information that they were sponsoring a rival
convention; Dr. Muniini Mulera and Mr. Alexander Zabasajja declined to do so
and in the subsequent November 18th, 2013 meeting, Dr. Opiyo Oloya proposed a
motion that if the UNAA President does not adhere to their demands, they would
not rule out the possibility of an alternative convention/s.
What is asinine about all this is that UNAA has never needed a BOT to guarantee
any Convention.
But in a show of great compromise, President Brian Kwesiga, offered to put
everything on the table and fully abide by a ruling on the dispute by an
external, neutral and mutually agreed upon professional Arbitrator. This was
not a new Kwesiga idea but one specifically enshrined in the new UNAA
constitution to resolve any constitutional disputes.
The Mulera-Zabasajja axis of the BoT and the C8 advanced several amusing
excuses before running away from the peace offer. In the meantime, Kwesiga and
his team have soldiered on. They have met every one of their election
objectives ahead of schedule and set a number of UNAA firsts - releasing UNAA’s
first ever quarterly financial reports as promised in the campaigns.
Many of these objectives are anchored in the principle of creating a new dawn
with regards to a more open and transparent record of UNAA's financial
processes; themes that the UNAA President's political opponents find very
uncomfortable.
The upcoming convention in San Diego, California slated for August 29th through
the August 31st 2014, has already registered a high number of registrants,
specifically more than 200 have signed up with eight months to go, which is an
all time UNAA record in itself.
To put it into perspective; the ill advised Detroit 2001 convention run by Dr.
Muniini Mulera and then UNAA President Mr. Alexander Zabasajja, registered only
about 150 registrants by the end of the convention in September 2001 which
perhaps explains the huge personal debt incurred.
The Hyatt La Jolla Hotel, the venue of the 2014 convention is almost 50 percent
booked, which is another all time UNAA record. It would seem that once again
the UNAA membership, which is voting with it’s feet, has rallied behind its
elected leaders and ignored the prophets of doom, who seem to come around after
every election cycle has ended.
Talking about the laws and bylaws of UNAA as stipulated by the UNAA
Constitution, article 5.3 states that, "...to be eligible for nomination to be
a Trustee, a person shall be a member of UNAA in good standing for at least 5
consecutive years immediately preceding his or her nomination..." A basic
reading of this article automatically disqualifies the UNAA BOT Secretary Dr.
Opiyo Oloya and its Chairman Dr. Muniini K. Mulera from sitting on the UNAA BOT
in the first place.
One wonders where they get the moral authority to judge who is following the
rules or not.
As UNAA’s leadership moves from one generation to another its future has never
looked brighter. Transitional periods present their own challenges that can
always be overcome as long as an organization has good leaders in place.
President Kwesiga is presiding over the youngest and most ethnically diverse
leadership team in UNAA history. This together with the results that they have
already produced bodes well for the organization's future and continued success.
Please register at <http://www.unaa.org/> www.unaa.org
The writer is a former two-term UNAA Vice President
Ugandan North American Association – Cries of a wolf
http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/652039-ugandan-north-american-association-cries-of-a-wolf.html
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