Ugandan North American Association – Cries of a wolf 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 UNAAs 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 UNAAs 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 UNAAs financial processes; themes that the UNAA Presidents 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 organizations future and continued success. Please register at unaa.org The writer is a former two-term UNAA Vice President
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 05:26:25 +0000
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