Museveni's Dallas Visit: The Intrigues
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| Museveni is received in Dallas P. Courtesy |
From the time the community first heard about Museveni’s visit to Dallas, to the vast questions with insufficient answers regarding his second visit to the community, to who was behind his invitation and why the visit had to be arranged within barely a three week crush program, to why of all U.S cities Dallas had to be considered again, to Museveni’s landing at Love field Airport where not a single city official was present to welcome him, to what he was thinking when the son of Kaguta found himself heading not to some downtown luxury five star hotel, but to a rented farm house in a mosquito infested environment in Allen, Texas, on a journey which cost him approximately one hour. All those were questions which until his sudden departure, short of his originally planned day, still linger without sufficient answers. As it later turned out, some of our community leaders themselves were as green as those who were asking endless unanswered questions.
The visit was hurriedly dubbed by the organizers as the “Trade & Investment Summit,” an evening which had been meant to be the feature of the visit.
As scheduled, on Saturday, September 20th at approximately 12:00pm central standard time, President Y. K. Museveni, landed at Dallas Love field airport having flown directly from London, UK. Without any delay, he was whisked off straight to his Allen TX, rented ranch house.
On the same day shortly after 5:00pm Mzee Museveni, even as fatigued and jet lagged as he visibly appeared to be, he wasted no time in preparing to meet a group of people, many of who were comprised of different African communities in the Dallas metro including some Americans and Ugandan locals as well as Ugandan's others from surrounding cities like Austin and San Antonio.
From the outset, the impression given by many who braved the Texas high heat-humidity indexes soaring as high as 102 degrees, confined in an open space tent, by all standards except for a few who appeared like genuine investors among whom included a group of well-established business owners which was led by Dr. Amos Abuga, a well-known local entrepreneur whose main business interests deal with medical and scholastic materials to Africa, a chain of real estate, pharmacy stores and healthy coffee distribution. Amos made a spirited presentation before Museveni, and indicated that he was ready to put his money where his mouth was, by investing in Uganda only if what he referred to as "Red tape" was eliminated. The rest unfortunately, presented themselves more of opportunists, a memorable lesson out of his second visit to Dallas, that Museveni, was later to discover that he was not meeting with actual investors as the program had indicated, but actual beggars!
Literally everyone who lined up to ask questions was either asking the Ugandan leader for favors or meeting their personal needs while others wanted facilitation in establishing businesses which were deemed least among the targeted establishment of investors in the country. Similarly, others solicited for personal scholarships to further their education in the U.S.
The list of “Beggars” did not spare most notable community figures among whom included UNAA's President, Brian Kwesiga, who a few weeks had begun his begging campaign for more funding to the dysfunctional UNAA, a message which he had already sent through the fired and former Ugandan Prime minister, Amama Mbabazi, during the recent San Diego UNAA convention. Brian was quick at following up with the same antiques during his opening remarks in the very presence of the man commonly known in Uganda as the “Brown envelope wielding President” Museveni.
Madame Ambassador Oliver Wonekha, equally seized the opportunity by publicly appealing to her boss to highly consider renewing her three year Ambassadorial contract which would soon be due for renewal. The Ambassador systematically outlined her short term accomplishments in Washington, among which included the newly purchased passport printing equipment, adding that the purchase had significantly helped in reducing the backlog of passport applications and renewals at the embassy in addition to linking the country with potential investors even as evidenced with her three trips to Dallas since she assumed office.
Among others who took advantage of seeking for favors from Museveni was “UNAA DoD” Mrs. Irene Kasujja, who clearly made her case by expressing her readiness and availability for a government job in Uganda. Armed with what appeared to be her resume, the holder of an MBA degree with additional mastery and vast experience in Human resource management, Irene, wondered why the regime would recruit Americans and other foreigners to work in Uganda when the country is endowed with qualified citizens across the world who could perform even better. Engineer Brian Kwesiga, expressed similar sentiments, adding that during his college days, he scored far better than most of his American contemporaries and that competing for jobs with them was not just a matter of who was better qualified but where job opportunities were readily available.
Later in her introductory remarks to the Ugandan ruler, Ambassador Oliver Wonekha, reminded the assembled delegates that Uganda was no longer what it used to be known for. Uganda, she said, “Is not a land locked country but a land-linked country.” She added, Uganda has all kinds of trade and investment opportunities, natural resources, fertile land coupled with excellent tropical weather for any investor to tap into.
On his part, President Museveni’s during his address to the “Trade & Investment” forum, he reminisced on an illustration which he made during his first visit to Dallas over twenty years ago, but this time in a slightly different way. He said; “There are two types of Kings; the first one is the consumer. One who buys goods and services. The second king is the entrepreneur or an investor, who actually produces goods and services with the ability to materialize and facilitate the middle men.” The middle men, he said are among others, politicians, bureaucrats, etc.
On a casual observation, for what Museveni says to be his actual age of “Seventy,” it was quite impressive to note that the old man stood upright without any support, walking stick or podium to lean on, throughout his address which approximately lasted for about an hour. Perhaps his good stamina could be attributed to his "Healthy habits" which he said did not include; Rice, bread, chicken, fish or pork!
In response to an earlier request by Brian Kwesiga and Dr. Abe of WA, Seattle on behalf of UNAA for more sponsorship in addition to a public request for the dictator to grace UNAA 2015 convention in Louisiana, and a financial request which was additionally made by the local UAA-DFW president Lambert Etibot, to fund local community programs, Museveni, made four promises;
[i] He promised to increase the UNAA's package to $100.000 of which $50.000 will be shared among “UNAA communities” while UNAA mainstream will keep the rest. How, who and what will be the funds distribution format and criteria will be carried out remains to be determined by?!
[ii] Museveni, promised to waive the $50.00 entry visa fee to Ugandan “Dual citizen” status holders who hold other passports other than Ugandan.
[iii] Museveni, promised to expand the “Diaspora desk” from the ministry of foreign affairs [MoFA] to State House for what he referred to as “Close monitoring” of Diaspora affairs.
[iv] Museveni publicly accepted to honor Kwesiga's request to grace next year's UNAA convention, an opportunity which he said, would line up with his next trip to next year's UN trip in New York.
The promise of opening a “Diaspora desk” in the president’s office appeared to have started a “Protracted war” between Mr. Kizza Sseninde, the Ugandan based UNAA contact person who shied not at the effort of campaigning for the new post although one Washington based Ugandan lady also seemed to be interested in both the “Diaspora desk” job as well as asking for support from Museveni, to stand for a parliamentary seat in Mityana district.
In addition to the aforementioned promises, Uganda’s longest reigning ruler further promised free land to some three potential investors, one of whom had earlier showed interest in building a “Technical college” in Uganda, only if he could be “Facilitated” with free land.
Who, how and why was President Museveni invited To Dallas?
By his own admission, the vision of inviting and hosting President Y. K. Museveni to the Dallas Fort Worth community was initially perceived and introduced by Pastor Richard Ssalongo Bazanye. This was a commendable idea which in itself bared no qualms except for the manner in which the invitation procedures were first processed, executed and later introduced to the community leadership.
Standard protocol procedures were directly encroached on the local front as well as violating State House guidelines and procedures of inviting heads of State. True as it may, for any reason anyone can invite the President of Uganda or any other head of state for that matter. However, in the case of a community event, in a community which has recognized leadership in place, it is my considered opinion that Pastor Richard Ssalongo Bazanye, literally overstepped his boundaries as well as the community’s leadership by failing to involve or consult the leadership from the very beginning, in as far as the purpose, timing, scheduling and where other necessary logistics were concerned.
Equally important, there are offices and officials who should under normal circumstances be the first to be consulted especially where guidance together with recommended protocol of inviting high profile guests are concerned. The office of Uganda’s Regional Consular General and the office of Her Excellency the Ugandan Ambassador to the U.S.A, should have been formerly consulted and involved instead of being informed after the fact. By following such simple but vital procedures, one would stand better chances of avoiding being misunderstood or wrongly labeled.
It was sadly learned that originally a certain regional section of some Ugandan community members were strategically and secretly selected as part of the committees which were to organize the “Presidential visit” among the committees included; The “Registration desk,” security, transport, foods and beverages, communication/publicity, among others, which by the way, all committees were directly linked and vetted by State House, Entebbe.
Thanks to the strongly worded recommendation from Ambassador Wonekha, which was directed against the sectarian practice employed in the committee selection exercise, the organizers were forced to scout for a wider inclusion of Ugandans in the community. As it turned out, almost every committee [Both physical and cyber committees] operated and tightly held exclusively discreet agendas while some meetings were constantly suffering endless cancellations due to what was evidently the ever growing tensions coupled with directives coming from State house - Entebbe, the Ugandan Embassy, Washington, DC and from whoever else who had a say in the preparations on ground.
As days of the visit drew closer, secret meetings continued making rounds between a handful of special interest groups and committees whose forums consisted mainly of physical and conveniently selected “WhatsApp group” phone discussions. However, as coincidence would have it, some misdirected partial Text messages were found surfacing on some individual cell phones in the community. It was at that point when it was found that closed meetings were steadily going on behind closed doors from the rest of the community, something which had never happened in all the times this community has hosted high profile delegates. It was imperative that immediate inclusion of all and for the benefit of meaningful preparations with attainable results be effected.
Eventually, the local UAA-DFW’s leadership decided to organize one of the best BBQ’s which BTW, was viewed as very engaging, friendly and highly productive. The much needed fellowship doubly served as an opportunity for formal introduction of the visit. Appeals for participation from the chief organizer of the presidential visit to the community were made.
To Pastor Richard Bazanye’s credit, utilizing the opportunity to settle some prevailing disputes and grievances among some members was perhaps one of highest score of the day. His approach in handling the issues which had been predominantly perceived as a private or “NRM party” event and being fronted as a community visit changed course from the negative perception to a rather positive attitude regarding the intended visit.
With almost less than two weeks remaining to the final days to the highly anticipated visit, each day that passed by drew more challenges and anxieties tripled with all kinds of pressures from every angle. Hoarding the much needed information from the main organizers would eventually prove that the motive was intentional probably so because the State House boys were prepared to engage in what was seen as a “Secret weapon” of fighting what was beginning to appear as “Moles in the camp.”
Barely five days to the long waited date, some of the advanced team members of the “PGB” attached to State House and other security operatives were already on ground and clearly noticeable wherever they appeared in the sounding communities.
Growing tensions and confusion was also detected between the “East African Chamber of commerce” the regional Ugandan consulate, Uganda’s Ambassador and the local organizing team. Apparently, that was just a partial mix of the bad, the good and ugly twists that would forever haunt the Dallas - Fort Worth community, for what would later be found to be selfish interests from all mentioned stake holders.
Local UAA-DFW history bears testimony of unmatched records from any Ugandan community elsewhere in as far as a reputable line up of high profile guests from a cross section of dignitaries ranging from the religious leaders, politicians, including royal family members, starting with at least five Ugandan Ambassadors to the U.S since 1990.
The recent visit will be remembered for issues engulfed by the entire program such as too much drama, confusion, self-betrayal, highly principled levels of intrigue, secrecy, lack of transparency, deceit and most alarmingly, deliberate violations of protocol procedures even where the very basic grain of protocol evidently lacked among a clique of organizers sadly so, even from the area based Ugandan consular general and his bosses in Washington, DC, whose sloppiness in addition to failure to honor some city required technicalities, were the main reason of the Irving Convention center cancellation before the "Lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender" [LGBT] community in addition to the locally based Global Coalition for Human Rights Activists -USA] kicked in. Sadly and partially, given the historic community track record, those are some of the fundamental issues that will forever haunt the committee for having blown an opportunity which could have otherwise been one of the best organized and possibly one of the well attended high profile visit the community has ever had.
The most essential bottom line was the damaging effect to many community members who felt disappointed and betrayed by the organizers, mainly so because of the circus which was involved with the overall organizing committees, resulting to some members who decided to stay away from what was generally perceived as some form of political ambitious with intentions geared toward promoting Museveni’s NRM political agendas in the area, besides the usual suspects whose main focus was to take advantage of tapping into what was yet to be turned into a money making opportunity.
Protocol
There are several reasons why following appropriate protocol procedures especially where preparing for high profile visits is of paramount importance. Firstly, it saves the community from any possible embarrassments and heartaches. Secondly, it saves the community shouldering individual responsibilities. Thirdly, the recent “In-house” clashes which allegedly took place between Ambassador Oliver Wonekha, Hon. David Mureeba, the organizing committee and the East African chamber of commerce leadership team would have easily contained without much hustling.
The above hard-learned experiences are reason enough to support and get more involved with our local chapters and not to shy away when a call for duty is needed. That is also reason enough for the UAA-DFW leadership to learn how to detect or discern future entanglements with well-intended community programs from private or personal programs.
Let us learn to trust our elected leaders by allowing them to serve us the best way they can without being intrusive and sidelining them from their dully and responsible duties.
Let us resolve not to allow any divisive attitudes and factions to tear our beloved UAA-DFW and community at large.
Let us resolve to toil and build our communities including our beloved UNAA without depending on our parents, brothers and sisters, grand and great grand parents, uncles and aunties in Uganda, to support and sponsor our diaspora programs including labor day weekend parties in our backyards.
Let us resolve to reclaim our long lost community glory by saying NO to "Brown envelopes" from Kampala. We are more capable and able to give than to receive from our motherland. Let us break that syndrome which is actually a curse by forever saying "Enough is enough" to hand outs from Uganda to our communities, in UNAA and to all able hardworking foresighted Diasporas.
Together, let us fight to regain our communities from self seeking interest groups whose divisive attitudes have sidelined many of our fellow community members away from our communities.
For God and my country, Uganda!
By Rev. Joseph W. Kamugisha
Email: [email protected]