Newly elected president, Monday Atigo pledges to re-unite UNAA

By Samuel Muwanguzi

Following his election as the new UNAA President, Monday Atigo, 33, the outgoing vice president, has pledged to re-unite UNAA as his priority by reaching out to estranged members of the association to ensure they return and serve together for the betterment of all members.

“I acknowledged that “Mistakes were made by either side but we need to resolve the impasse, heal, move forward, and have one convention in Boston, Massachusetts next year,” he declared soon after he was sworn in by the newly appointed chairman of the Board of Trustees Dr. Joseph Buwembo.  Monday Atigo was elected unopposed to replace the youthful but combative Brian Kwesiga who has been president since 2013.  He will serve as president until 2017. UNAA holds elections for office bearers every 2 years.

The results of the elections were announced by the chairman of the UNAA Electoral Commission Mr. Franco Wantsala during a dinner marking the end of the 3-day convention Sunday evening. Atigo polled 59 votes, 35% of the 169 registered voters.  The elections took place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, New Orleans, Louisiana, where the 27th annual UNAA convention was held. The voting started at 6:00AM on Sunday and closed at 4:00PM. All candidates to the various positions were elected unopposed.

The elections were boycotted by a section of UNAA members who organized a rival festival at the Marriott hotel in downtown Manhattan, New York this weekend. It is the second time in as many years that the breakaway faction, UNAA Causes, a pressure group opposed to the leadership of the outgoing administration led by Brian Kwesiga has organized a parallel annual gala on the same weekend.

The newly elected UNAA president Monday Atigo holds an MBA from the University of Phoenix and is currently self-employed. He takes over an association that has been split, for the last two years, into two rival factions; the mainstream UNAA and the UNAA Causes. With the lowest voter turnout in the 27 years of UNAA existence and with half of the members boycotting the convention, Monday Atigo’s work is clearly cut out.  “As long as there are no pre-conditions, I am ready to compromise for the sake of UNAA. But if the dissenters demand fresh elections as a condition, I will tell them that an opportunity exists for them in the 2017 elections,” he said in an interview earlier.

John Semanda, a former male youth representative in UNAA council, was elected vice president. Currently working with Ernst & Young as a senior consultant, he holds a Bachelor’s degree in marketing & international business from   Pennsylvania State University.  He is President and Founder of Breaking Barriers, an organization geared towards the education of African youth in the Diaspora.

Peter Mukunya, a member of the outgoing UNAA council, was elected UNAA executive secretary. He replaces Aisha Musoke Ogwang who did not seek re-election. A holder of an MBA in international business from Dallas Baptist University, he works as an operations supervisor at Ingram Micro Mobility. He “desires to see UNAA re-united.” Arthur Nantamu, the chairman of the local organizing committee for the annual UNAA convention in New Orleans was elected treasurer. Arthur Nantamu is a former Guild President at Makerere University Business School and works as a financial consultant. “I want to ensure financial transparency restored in the management of UNAA funds,” he says.

The eight candidates to represent various regions in the USA in the UNAA council were also elected unopposed. They include Mary Tracy Nalwadda; Freddie Kamanya; Rogers Muyanja; Timothy Kazinduka; Daphine Mugayo; Nicholas Wakou, the outgoing Speaker of the council; Thomas Omara-Alwala; and Julius Muwulya. 

During his hand-over speech, the outgoing president Brian Kwesiga said that the association is now in a stronger financial position than ever before. Reacting to the boycott of the election and opposition to his administration by UNAA Causes, he expressed optimism that that UNAA will re-unite again. “Splits in UNAA are not new. Just as previous differences were resolved and dissenters returned to the fold, those who broke away will also return. Their cause will also die a natural death,” Kwesiga predicted in an interview earlier.

Speaking at the dinner, Uganda’s Ambassador to the USA Olive Wonekha and one of the founder members of UNAA Dr. Sarah Matovu lamented the divisions that have rocked the 27 year-old association yet it was founded to unite and offer a social safety net to all Ugandans living in the USA. “You must spare no effort and time to ensure that you reconcile with the other members and work together for the betterment of all and not to serve interests of one group,” Ambassador Wonekha advised. “UNAA was founded to serve all of us through the challenges we encounter in the Diaspora in a brotherly relationship and not as enemies,” Dr. Sarah Matovu, in whose house in Atlanta, Georgia where UNAA was founded in 1988 recalled. She urged the new administration to re-unite all members and desist from divisive tendencies.

But a member of the UNAA Causes, Edriss Kironde, charged that “the Kwesiga administration violated almost all provisions of the constitution that empower other organs to function and check the excesses of the executive. The best that can happen to UNAA is to dissolve it and we start afresh,” he said in an interview Monday. “UNAA lacked legitimacy and credibility to organize free and fair elections. Atigo lacks a mandate to engage us in reconciliation talks. He is a product of a fraudulent electoral process. He can only speak to us as an ordinary member of UNAA and not as a president. He is part of the problem, not a solution,” Edriss Kironde charged.

Dallas, Texas, USA.