Insults, accusations fly as race for UNAA top seat heats up

By Remmy Bahati 

From September 3rd to 6th, Ugandans living in North America will meet in Cincinnati, Ohio under their umbrella organization, the Ugandan North American Association (UNAA).

The main agenda of the 33rd annual convention and trade expo is to vote for UNAA's new leadership.

In what is shaping out to be a heated contest, Chicago based Henrietta Nairuba Wamala the incumbent president who is seeking a re-election, will face off with her vice president, California based Lydia Natoolo.

On another front, Albert Bakasara, the incumbent Deputy Speaker of the UNAA council will face off with new faces; Michigan based Joan Bavuga and Seattle based Mpiima Mugambe for the office of vice president.

Already sharp words have been exchanged and accusations and counter accusations are flying on various social media platforms as contestants try to garner support.

Natoolo has drawn first blood accusing the incumbent Wamala of frustrating her efforts to distribute a $50,000 community grant from the Uganda Government to support communities.

"This action was purely political, and intended to make me look bad. Every time I inched close to distributing money, a wrench would be thrown into those plans. From abruptly cancelled meetings to outright refusal by some leaders to forward me lists of those who applied for a grant," said Lydia Natoolo in a statement.

In response to the allegations, Uganda's Ambassador to the US Mull Katende dismissed the allegations and counter allegations from both parties saying they misrepresent the circumstances under which the Uganda government grant to UNAA amounting to $50,000 was returned to the consolidated fund.

"On October 8th 2020, the embassy wrote to the UNAA President, requesting for the list and details of eligible UNAA chapters or local organisations so that the embassy could transfer the remaining grant funds to beneficiaries accordingly. Several telephone reminders were also made to the UNAA executive. However, the embassy did not receive the formation list by the end of fiscal year 2020-2021," Katende said.

He asked the UNAA leadership to desist from dragging the name of the embassy into UNAA’s Internal wrangles.

Efforts to reach Wamala and the current UNAA executive secretary Lambert Etibot (running for a re-election) for a comment remained futile as they did not pick calls or respond to any of our messages for several days.

As the custodian of UNAA records, Etibot, said to be an ally of Wamala, would have been the one to generate the list and information required by the embassy.

Natoolo claimed that the list was not released because of fear that she would gain access to it and to mobilize members to mount a challenge against Wamala.

Former UNAA president Brian M. Kwesiga under whose leadership the annual grant to UNAA was increased from $20,000 to $100,000 also acknowledged the misuse of funds by the top UNAA leadership.

He said the only time UNAA has ever been audited in its 33 years of existence was in 2017 by a board of trustees he had appointed in 2015.

"As Ugandans in the diaspora, we ought to be a guiding light when it comes to transparency and accountability on how the Ugandan tax payer’s hard-earned money is spent. It is rather unfortunate that this has not always been the case in UNAA’s long solid history," Kwesiga said.

It has previously been alleged that the former UNAA administration led by Monday Atigo misappropriated funds mounting to over $500,000 in a statement by his then vice president Julius Muwulya.

In a speech at the UNAA convention in 2019, when Atigo was handing over the presidency to Nairuba whom he had endorsed, the Ugandan Ambassador to the US, Katende revealed that UNAA had failed to pay its hotel bill and the UNAA leadership had approached the embassy for a financial bailout which was granted.

As the campaigns heat up, supporters of both sides are hurling insults at each other on different forums with accusations and counter accusations. This divisive rhetoric in the UNAA campaigns is not new.

"The way UNAA is set up, the custodians of the election are the ones who you are running against. They control how many people can vote," said Dr. Daniel Kawuma a former contender in the UNAA presidency.

Frank Musisi, a former UNAA president said the electoral commission is corrupt and not independent.

They manipulate the data base. For UNAA to have a credible election, you must have an outside nonprofit organisation to the organise and conduct the election. We will never get anything serious from it," said  Musisi.

In response, the electoral commission chair, Florence Bazanye dismissed the critics assuring Ugandans of a free and fair election.

"In regards to the tensions, it’s not anything new in UNAA, we have taken into inconsideration what might have gone right in 2019 and corrected that. We now have a system that is going to be efficient and transparent. We take these elections seriously. We are not going to jeopardise our integrity. We will have a free and fair election," Bazanye told Nile Post in an interview.

Wamala is the second female UNAA president after Rosette Serwanga. It’s under Serwanga's leadership (2003-2005) that the government of Uganda first made a financial pledge to begin sponsoring UNAA.

This is also the first time in the UNAA history that women are facing each other for the top seat.