The thirst for petty fights has left Uganda’s oldest Diaspora Association, UNAA stuck with a massive 192,000 (Shs. 700 Million) judgement.
This followed an attempt by UNAA Executive to eliminate their bitter rivals UNAA Causes, only to find themselves caught in the trap.
Trouble emanates from a court suit in which Resorts World Las Vegas, a five-star hotel mistakenly UNAA following the cancellation of events there by their rivals UNAA Causes.
UNAA Causes had prior cancelled a convention in Las Vegas owing to the VISA backlog.
However, on receiving the lawsuit from Resorts World Las Vegas, the UNAA Executive deliberately sat on it so that they could use it later to pitch a petty war, only for it to fetch them an Shs700m judgement, prompting the Executive to go public immediately.
In a statement by UNAA President Henrieta Wamala on April 2nd, she accused UNAA Causes CEO David Muwanga of representing himself as UNAA Executive.
“The President of the Ugandan North America Association (UNAA inc) wishes to inform leaders, members, sponsors, supporters, partners, associates and the general public that UNAA inc, is not and has absolutely no relation to or affiliation with UNAA Causes in any capacity or at any level whatsoever,” a statement by Henrietta reads in part.
“As such, while the name, Ugandan North America Association is referenced in the judgement, the organization has absolutely no responsibility for or is in any way culpable in this matter,” the statement continues.
In his defence, UNAA Causes CEO David Muwanga expressed dismay with the clique of the UNAA Executive who intentionally decided to withhold the lawsuit from the Las Vegas hotel with sinister motives only to burn their fingers.
“What is so upsetting is how mail can be withheld for at least four months and apparently there was no effort to engage the hotel to establish why the lawsuit came about,” Muwanga contends.
“These folks had an opportunity to tell the hotel that we are two different entities, we don’t know how the Convention went when that happened, “ he added.
Muwanga wondered who shared the pages of the contract with the hotel specifically reading UNAA Causes, and wondered how his Association would contract the hotel under UNAA inc while the same UNAA Inc was openly and publicly marketing their convention for the same weekend in San Francisco.
“Don’t we risk a cancellation if we get caught during the process? We cancelled/postponed openly, and publicly. How can anyone get sued for events in Las Vegas while they were in San Francisco, accept those Court Sermons, open them, maliciously use them against Las Vegas ?” Muwanga wondered.
When we reached out to the UNAA Inc President, she said the association’s lawyers were preparing for a next cause of action because they were wrongfully sued.
“We were wrongfully served. We are not UNAA Causes, Las Vegas Resort should deal with the Owner of UNAA Causes that failed to pay them,” she said.
Sources say that UNAA signed for the Court sermons and sat on them for about four months, it was until after the Nevada Court signed off on the judgement without any of the accused parties attending the Court session that UNAA went on the offensive against UNAA Causes.
Muwanga confirmed that when he heard the rumours that UNAA had some mail involving UNAA Causes he called UNAA’s State agent in Massachusetts, Ms Jackie Tabie who said that the mail was already forwarded to UNAA’s President Henrietta Wamala
Muwanga also contacted UNAA Vice President, Joan Bavuga who acknowledged UNAA’s Communication with Resorts World Las Vegas through the Association’s President Henrietta Wamala.
Bavuga advised Muwanga that UNAA is not going to share the mail they received with UNAA Causes.
It should be noted that it is illegal in the United States of America to open another person’s mail, it’s a felony that can get someone in jail for three years.
