{UAH} CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT
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4:51 PM |
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to take politics out of UNAA; to stop constant in-fighting; to bring transparency to UNAA and to reduce UNAA (convention fees and membership fees)
Personal background:
Like everyone of Ffumbe clan, I am from Busiro. I was born and raised at Najjanankumbi on Ntebe Road. I went to school at Lubaga, Namilyango, Makerere (Bachelor of Laws…LLB) and Oklahoma (JD). I clerked with the IGG in Kampala (assisting with investigation/prosecution of politicians) and State government in Oklahoma (regulation of telecom, electicity, gas and oil companies). I came to the US about 10 years ago, right after I had finished school and I have lived mainly in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Professional Background
I am a Corporate and Securities attorney and I focus on complex mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, cross-border transactions, energy matters,venture capital/private placement financing and public company counseling. I have worked for 2 of the largest largest law firms in the world, held a management position in the legal department of a Fortune 300 corporation, a large pharmaceutical company and in a leading IT manufacturer. I also have my own small private practice and I advise Ugandans in North America who have legal issues in Uganda (litigation, land matters, family issues, probate, corporate, etc. In addition, I have a company that helps Ugandans in North America that want to build houses in Uganda who may not have ready funds or trusted relatives to supervise the work. Together with other people, I offer free immigration legal advice to Ugandans who have just arrived in the US.
I am a Corporate and Securities attorney and I focus on complex mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, cross-border transactions, energy matters,venture capital/private placement financing and public company counseling. I have worked for 2 of the largest largest law firms in the world, held a management position in the legal department of a Fortune 300 corporation, a large pharmaceutical company and in a leading IT manufacturer. I also have my own small private practice and I advise Ugandans in North America who have legal issues in Uganda (litigation, land matters, family issues, probate, corporate, etc. In addition, I have a company that helps Ugandans in North America that want to build houses in Uganda who may not have ready funds or trusted relatives to supervise the work. Together with other people, I offer free immigration legal advice to Ugandans who have just arrived in the US.
Why I am running for the Presidency:
i. I intend to keep UNAA out of politics. Since we don't declare our political affiliations when we pay for the convention, I assume that all US, Canadian and Ugandan political parties have followers in UNAA. I believe that no one political group should dominate UNAA. If a member left the convention feeling that any political group has dominated the convention, that will be a failure on my part as an organizer. Most importantly, I will not seek donations from politicians and I'll not invite politicians as main speakers. I'll keep political speakers in political forums. e.g when I heard that my competitor for the Presidency, Mr Brain Kwesiga and his dad (Mr Mureeba) had invited Mr Elly Karuhanga as the main speaker at this year's convention, I fought it very hard (http://mobile.monitor.co.ug/News/Ugandans-in-US-split-over-Byanyima--Karuhanga/-/691252/1912300/-/format/xhtml/-/9dt8gtz/-/index.html. My other competitor, Mr Francis Senoga did not say a word about this matter.
ii. I'll try hard to stop the constant in-fighting. Currently, we have endless fights over every little thing-fights that normally start during campaigns but last beyond the convention. The constant in-fighting saps our energy. I am the only presidential candidate that has condemned the current insults going on unaalist (rather than suspending the offenders, the moderator suggested that whoever is offended by foul language, should leave unaalist!). Instead of working together to improve UNAA, we end up spending our efforts trying to bring each other down. Worse, the fighting drives away many members that do not enjoy witnessing the constant fights. If we reduce in-fighting, we will be able to focus our energy on examining all the ways we can improve UNAA.
iii. I'll make decision-making as transparent as possible. Currently, it is not possible for members to see minutes of the deliberations of the leadership and we don't see financial books. You have seen the past couple of months, as Mr Brian Kwesiga (UNAA Council Member for Dallas area) and Mr Francis Senoga (UNAA President) attack each other, even our leaders can't figure out (or do not agree on) how we ended up with a debt at last year's convention in Philadelphia. A year later, we don't know how much we owe, if any!
i. I intend to keep UNAA out of politics. Since we don't declare our political affiliations when we pay for the convention, I assume that all US, Canadian and Ugandan political parties have followers in UNAA. I believe that no one political group should dominate UNAA. If a member left the convention feeling that any political group has dominated the convention, that will be a failure on my part as an organizer. Most importantly, I will not seek donations from politicians and I'll not invite politicians as main speakers. I'll keep political speakers in political forums. e.g when I heard that my competitor for the Presidency, Mr Brain Kwesiga and his dad (Mr Mureeba) had invited Mr Elly Karuhanga as the main speaker at this year's convention, I fought it very hard (http://mobile.monitor.co.ug/News/Ugandans-in-US-split-over-Byanyima--Karuhanga/-/691252/1912300/-/format/xhtml/-/9dt8gtz/-/index.html. My other competitor, Mr Francis Senoga did not say a word about this matter.
ii. I'll try hard to stop the constant in-fighting. Currently, we have endless fights over every little thing-fights that normally start during campaigns but last beyond the convention. The constant in-fighting saps our energy. I am the only presidential candidate that has condemned the current insults going on unaalist (rather than suspending the offenders, the moderator suggested that whoever is offended by foul language, should leave unaalist!). Instead of working together to improve UNAA, we end up spending our efforts trying to bring each other down. Worse, the fighting drives away many members that do not enjoy witnessing the constant fights. If we reduce in-fighting, we will be able to focus our energy on examining all the ways we can improve UNAA.
iii. I'll make decision-making as transparent as possible. Currently, it is not possible for members to see minutes of the deliberations of the leadership and we don't see financial books. You have seen the past couple of months, as Mr Brian Kwesiga (UNAA Council Member for Dallas area) and Mr Francis Senoga (UNAA President) attack each other, even our leaders can't figure out (or do not agree on) how we ended up with a debt at last year's convention in Philadelphia. A year later, we don't know how much we owe, if any!
Sadly, that is not an isolated incident. Most members do not know how any of the other past debts were incurred. When I heard about the 30,000 debt last year, I tried very hard to get the facts but no one was willing to give me the facts. In fact, UNAA leadership bodies just expressed alarm that I knew about the debt rather investigating the cause of the debt!
I'll make minutes available as soon as they are approved. I'll also make the meetings as open as possible. Interested members will be free to listen-in to the meetings. Most importantly, I will put UNAA's finance books on the association's website and update them every 3 months. If they are not yet audited, I'll still publish them but indicate that fact. These two changes would keep UNAA leadership on its toes because members would know what is going on. e.g If the leadership proposes/votes to spend $100, yet projected income is $50, members will ask questions!
iv. as President, I'll try to make conventions cheaper and within our means. In my view, the current convention fees are too high. We can make it cheaper and still have a successful convention if we reduce unnecessary expenses like inviting too many non-paying guests (accommodation, international phone bills from their hotel rooms, food, limos, etc), negotiate better deals with hotels, reduce the number and perks for entertainers, etc.
I'll make minutes available as soon as they are approved. I'll also make the meetings as open as possible. Interested members will be free to listen-in to the meetings. Most importantly, I will put UNAA's finance books on the association's website and update them every 3 months. If they are not yet audited, I'll still publish them but indicate that fact. These two changes would keep UNAA leadership on its toes because members would know what is going on. e.g If the leadership proposes/votes to spend $100, yet projected income is $50, members will ask questions!
iv. as President, I'll try to make conventions cheaper and within our means. In my view, the current convention fees are too high. We can make it cheaper and still have a successful convention if we reduce unnecessary expenses like inviting too many non-paying guests (accommodation, international phone bills from their hotel rooms, food, limos, etc), negotiate better deals with hotels, reduce the number and perks for entertainers, etc.
v. attract more volunteers to offer immigration legal advice. I am a co-founder of a group of attorneys that offers free legal advice to new Ugandan immigrants. I would like to leverage UNAA to get more Ugandans to help us with this huge task. We have approached convention organizers in the past and requested them to help us reach out to more volunteers but they were not interested. They wanted us to pay for a vendor table!
What I have done for UNAA
i- I started a free legal clinic that offers services to Ugandans with immigration problems. We have been doing this for over 7 years now.
ii-I have been offering free legal advice to many Ugandans on various legal issues
iii-I have attended several UNAA conventions. I started attending conventions when I was still resident in Kampala.
iv-I volunteered at the 2007 UNAA Convention.
v-for some time, I served as the Secretary to the 2011 UNAA Election Commission
vi-on many occasions, I have tried hard to advise UNAA candidates to stop their surrogates from insulting their opponents.
vii-I have drafted or revised a few local chapter constitutions, including those for States I have never visited.
viii-over the years, I have reviewed contracts for several UNAA leaders
ix. I have offered my views on what I consider pressing issues (elimination of wasteful expenses, constant fights over trivial issues, confidentiality of voter lists, new constitution, integrity of voter lists, membership fees, civility in electioneering, free and fair elections, need for transparency in UNAA, etc).
What I have done in my local community
My local community in Northern California expects its members to attend fun events (births, graduations, get-togethers, BBQs, Annual Uganda Independence dinners, etc) as well as sad ones (burial, wake, last funeral rights, remembrance, lumbe, etc). Whenever I can, I do attend all those events. I also offer free legal advice on almost anything I can, including probate, immigration, family, corporate, employment, torts, etc ( i.e I am the "community General Practitioner").
Why I am running for the presidency instead of a lower post
This has been one of the more popular questions from members of UNAA.
I decided to run for the top position because I feel that I have the qualities needed to run UNAA. In my view, UNAA needs, a leader with good judgement, who can listen to others, who can persuade without bullying, who can bring people together, who can run meetings efficiently, but above all, UNAA needs fresh ideas. I trust that I have all those qualities.
I don't think one has to have served in UNAA leadership in order to run president. What is needed is good judgment. e.g There is an on-going debate about the bad decisions by UNAA's current leaders which have left UNAA deep in debt. Though both my competitors Mr Brian Kwesiga (for 2 years) and Mr Francis Sennoga (for 10 years), they have been leaking documents showing that they were both involved in getting UNAA in the current financial mess (Francis was told that his choice of hotel would cause a loss but he insisted on in...Brian knew of this but didn't tell members until 2 years later!).
Over the past several years, we have also seen current and past UNAA leaders accuse each other of incompetence and they all cite specific examples to back their accusations. In other words, longevity in leadership does not necessarily translate to competency or good judgment. Wasn't that the argument Obama successfully made against McCain?
Besides, the main job for UNAA is to organize the convention. In 2007, I was the treasurer for the organizing committee of the American Bar Association convention in San Francisco (with more than 7,000 delegates at 16 hotels and lasted 1 week).
Besides, the main job for UNAA is to organize the convention. In 2007, I was the treasurer for the organizing committee of the American Bar Association convention in San Francisco (with more than 7,000 delegates at 16 hotels and lasted 1 week).
I have experience conducting meetings with several people, satisfying the requests highly demanding folks, managing several projects, drawing and managing multi-million dollar budgets. I have been Director of Legal Services for a Fortune 300 company and a Director of Regulatory Compliance in a large pharmaceutical company. I also have experience managing projects and running meetings as a Corporate and Securities Attorney in two of the largest law firms in the world.
For a faster response please contact me at 415.789.6427
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