UNAA CONVENTION: Released Member List Spurs More Controversy as Officials Are Accused of Tribalism

The leaders of Uganda North America Association_UNAA have finally released the member list for the upcoming convention in Dallas after being put on the sword members for over two months.

Members of Uganda’s oldest and biggest formal diaspora community will come together in Dallas Texas from 1-5 September for their annual gathering. Being an odd year, members are also slated to elect the organisation’s leadership for the next two years, up to 2025.

Members had called out the Electoral Commission chaired by Madam Aisha Nyonjo for delaying to release of the voter register amid suspicions there is a plot to scrap some members off the list to disenfranchise them.

Their fears proved factual after the list was released on Wednesdays, 23 had nearly a hundred members cut out, meaning they would neither be allowed to vote nor attend the convention.

The list of members left out of the released list includes prominent members like founding UNAA member, Eng. David Mubreeba and his family. Mureeba’s deletion has brewed controversy among members with queries over how a man who has been a member of the organisation for over three decades found himself among the expandable.

Columbia University-trained scribe, Remmy Bahati who has been consistent in calling out the leaders over accountability issues has not survived the ruthless axe of those who call the shots at the organisation. Bahati has protested how her voting rights were taken away even though she is a paid-up member in good standing to qualify her as a voter.

Also axed by Ms Nairuba Henrietta’s leadership are members with Kinyarwanda names, including those born in Uganda and holding Ugandan Passports. UNAA members of Kenyan and Tanzanian origin have equally been targeted in what has been interpreted as a purge of groups disloyal to the current leadership.

Over the years, it has been a norm for members from the three countries to join the membership of each other’s association in the spirit of the East African Brotherhood.