Why NRM diaspora is pushing for elections

By Moses Kimuli

Ugandans in the Diaspora contribute more revenue to the country than exports according to latest stastics,every day Ugandans outside will send money to Uganda for different reasons including family support, investments and safe custody.

This has overtaken all the revenue generated from exports made by Uganda according to the budget. We, the NRM Diaspora members, however, are not happy that we are not fully utilised. If well utilised, we could do more than sending money back home.

Ugandans who subscribe to NRM in the Diaspora realised that their potential was underutilised and decided to form a new league: NRM Diaspora League and decided to elect Patrick Asiimwe as our interim chairperson to oversee the registration of all NRM members in the Diaspora and also have elections for new leadership.

Assimwe, who is an immigration barrister (lawyer), has been the NRM UK Chapter chairman for the last eight years and has been appreciated in various circles for uniting Ugandans due to his excellent leadership.

He is the brain behind the first NRM Radio  in the Diaspora and facilitated it personally. If you asked any Ugandan, who has settled in the United kingdom through the asylum process, they will tell you about Assimwe. Some have been got off the plane being deported to Uganda because of him.

To help him, we elected an interim team to help streamline the diaspora. We also elected chairpersons in each country we are in at the Diaspora to run NRM work in those countries. This position comes with a lot of responsibilities.

The following is the team  to help the interim committee: Dennis Kalema, the chairman NRM South Africa, Miss Lyn Nabisere, the chairperson NRM Egypt, Hussein Wasswa for Turkey,  Daaki Morris Southern Sudan, Charles Inyoin Sweden NRM Chapter, Edris Kironde, overall coordinator United States of America, Husna Birungi, NRM Germany, Henry Muhwezi, NRM Qatar and Patrick Assimwe, the chairman UK Chapter, who also doubles as the interim chairman NRM Diaspora league.

We also recognise other NRM Diaspora members that have helped and we do consult them for guidance. These are led by Haji Abbey Walusimbi who we consult on a few things, Haji walusimbi brings a lot of knowledge and we consult him as our ex-chairman.

We chose the NRM Vice-Chairman, Haji Moses Kigongo, as our patron and also guide us regarding NRM issues. We have also approached few other NRM top officials including the Speaker of Parliament, who we met in South Africa and requested she helps guide us, a request she accepted.

We aim to have registered at least over 100 NRM members in the Diaspora by the year 2019 and with these, we will have a very strong team to help our country grow.

So far it is been a smooth journey with less than a year we have contributed to the community through different projects and this has been achieved through unity.

We contributed one tonne of food and tress to the people of Isingiro who were hit by famine. We have helped the Mabirizi Complex suicide survivor foot bills and have paid for his counselling.

We are currently helping orphans living with HIV in Njeru, under a charity run by local musician Hytham Ssali.

Lastly, we have for the last three months joined hands with Uganda Police to address the issue of road accidents through Road safety awareness campaign launched in Kampala, with this we have given out reflectors, road safety awareness leaflets and we are currently mobilising for Cameras which will hand over to Uganda Police. These will manage to catch careless drivers.

But why push for elections? Over the last 10 years, many Ugandans with ideas have been frustrated because we have no strong leadership to connect us to the relevant government departments. An example is me, who launched NISHIKE MUKONONI UGANDA project which aimed to helping serving soldiers and policemen access free mental health support.

A lot of serving soldiers and policemen suffer from mental illness and these fear coming out. This has led to recent shootings in Uganda.

The project which was to help reduce random shootings by soldiers was launched by General Salim Saleh, the Presidential Special Adviser on Defence, in Kibanga Luweero district, but again this is struggling to achieve its goals because of lack of required support.

Having worked with the National Health Service in the United Kingdom as a mental health specialist, I decided to pay back to my motherland by starting a mental health project which would benefit the army and police with mental health problems to reduce shootings in the country.

Recently we met Minister Kiwanda in London and agreed to be Ugandan tourism ambassadors in Europe. Our role will be to be sell our tourism abroad and this will see increase in the numbers of tourists visiting and bring in revenue to the country.

If well organised and united, we can help in different sectors in the Government because we are patriotic and willing to help our country grow.

Our request is that the NRM secretariate to help us achieve our dream and support us through the registration and election process we know that the secretariate is financially overstretched but this is an initiative we have together with our Chairman, Patrick Asiimwe, decided to fund.

All we need is guidance and support throughout the whole process.

Together we can help Uganda develop.

The writer is the interim spokesperson NRM Diaspora League based in London