When the appointed time  for  the Ggwanga Mujje Boston meeting came last Sunday, those who came to replace Rev. Kaasa Nakabaale’s executive and confirm the Ttabamiruka date change could not get what they wanted. And the reason was because the special elections they wanted to hold were illegal according to the Ggwangamujje constitution.  According to the constitution of Ggwangamujje a meeting that will have a vote to change the Executive must be announced 30 day in advance.

Approximately 100 Baganda met in Waltham (Boston suburb) expecting to see a verbal fight that would end with the replacement of the current executive  with one that is more friendly to the objectives Museveni funded UNAA. However, the election could not happen because although Nakabaale’s opponents had done a solid underground lobbying (kakuyege) they had ignored the the constitution.  The situation was similar to elections in President Museveni’s  Uganda, where all the rules are ignored during the campaign and arguments about what is legal and what is not start during vote counting. They were also similar to President Mwai Kibaki’s Kenyan politics because, after agreeing that the elections cannot take place the Boston meeting “compromised” for  Mr. Mayanja Buwembo to “share” the Chairman’s powers with Rev. Nakabaale until elections in December.

The Ttabamiruka ’09 date change is expected to be looked at again after the association gets the new Executive. If Nakabaale loses in December, however it is expected that the UNAA and NRM teams will be the winners and they will push their agenda to kill Ttabamiruka much more easily. Note that not all UNAA diehards are NRM operatives but the two share the goal to kill Ttabamiruka.

During a controversial October 26, 2008 general meeting  of Gganga Mujje Boston,  attendees voted to change the Ttabamiruka ’09 meeting date from September 2009 to a much less practical July 2009, to the benefits of the UNAA Convention in Chicago. They also agreed on a special meeting on November 9, 2008 to replace the current Executive led by Rev. Kaasa Nakabaale. Notable, when  the minutes of the October 26, meeting were written by Vice Chairman Moses Bukenya (not the secretary who was also present)  they omitted the names of UNAA’s Moses Kalemba and a few others who had put up strong arguments for changing the Ttabamiruka date.

Members of the Ggwangamujje Boston Executive include Reverend Nakabaale (President), NRM’s Bukenya (Vice President), Prof. Lugira, Kato Kajubi, Samalie Kajubi, Ssali, Mark Kizza, Mayanja and Dan Nvule. Historically, the Boston chapter of Ggwangamujje has suffered from NRM manipulation, placing a cloud of doubt over the overall loyalty of Boston Baganda to their Kabaka and nation. The immediate past president of Ggwangamujje Boston is a strong NRM Abdul Kimbugwe who simultaneously held that position with Chairmanship of UNAA.  Also historically UNAA receives funding from President Museveni’s government.  Mr. Museveni’s funding activities have been independently reported in the India Ocean Newsletter of October 27, 2008. And have has been admitted to in email exchanges between UNAA officials and Moses Byaruhanga of  Uganda state house which this reporter has seen.

In a highly suspect move, the Vice President of Ggwangamujje Boston, and not the secretary, took the minutes for the controversial October 26, 2008 general meeting. And he leaves the names of many attendees off the minutes, most notably that of the man who highly influenced the proceedings, UNAA stalwart Moses Kalemba. Bukenya wrote the minutes despite the presence of secretary, Patrick Bukenya.

According to one attendee who briefed this reporter, on condition of anonymity, it appears that Bukenya wants to the put decisions on record without details on who was there and who said what.  According to the attendee: “The fact is that the meeting was about two things. Most important to the Kalemba caucus was the Ttabamiruka date change. The other one was removing Kaasa Nakabale. Kalemba and Bukenya aggressively demanded and got the date change they wanted and, after that they were happy to give a lot of time to the other stuff. A few of the “basajja ba Kabaka” who supported the change would shock you. Bukenya is leaving Kalemba and others off the minutes and hiding the Ttabamiruka ’09 date change deep in the minutes because they think that we are really stupid.”

The minutes that Bukenya wrote, including the English mistakes and with the Ttabamiruka ’09 decision in boldface, are reproduced below:

members,

General meeting-Gwanga Mujje
Place: Pastor Mutyaba’s church-Waltham
Time:6.30pm
Committee Members in attendance

Kaasa Nakabaale
Moses Bukenya – Recording secretary
JohnFred Kawere
Kato Kajubi
Patrick Nsereko
Robert Kabuye
Prof. Lugira
Dan Nvule
John Mayanja

Meeting opened with singing of the Buganda Anthem.
Minutes:
1. Move a vote of thanks from the Chair to Pastor Mutyaba for all the help extended during the Buganda Independence function
2. Move to write a letter of thanks to the Boston Medical Center folks for all the facilitation provided towards the same function noted above.
3. Move to thank all those who volunteered and attended the functions. All accounts point to a successful event based on imput from attendees.
4. Explored need to get physical office premises for association:
-suggestions
i) -set up virtual office
ii)-rent office space from one of the churches and/or businesses in the community
iii)-Request Chairman to avail space at his residence to house office.
iv)-Write a grant proposal to Charitable Organistions to solicit funds to promote cultural themed projects like dance, language and other heritage issues.

-Meeting resolved to appoint committee to compile a  report exploring the viability of acquiring office premises and formulate a cost benefit analysis of the same. To present report to executive committee in near future. Chair did not set terms of reference as regards to time frame of submitting said report.
-Committee comprised of Dan Nvule, Frida Sebalu, Prof. Lugira, Salongo Kafeero & Moses Kalemba.
-Also Frida Sebalu pledged $100 towards Office project.
-Mr. John Mayanja pledged to build website, will need material from community
5.Members agreed to the date of July 4th of 2009 as date for hosting Ttabamiruka 2009 in Boston, Massachusetts.
6.Members agreed to hold off on electing the organising committee of the Ttabamiruka Boston 2009 until fresh elections are held for the Board.
-Date set for elections was Sunday, November 9th 2009 at 4pm at same location, Pastor Mutyaba’s Church, Waltham.

Meeting adjourned at around 9.35pm with a short prayer by the chairman.

Note: Chair urged everyone to actively engage all folks to attend the November 9th meeting, vote and play thier role in promoting Gwanga Mujje and it’s ideals.

End
Moses Bukenya
Vice Chair

On November 4, 2008 the Chairman of Ggwangamujje Boston, Rev. Nakabaale Kaasa, sent an email to BugandaPost.com, to deny that he had made a posting earlier that day, which, among other things, attacked one Joe Magandazi and praised UNAA’s Moses Kalemba. Buganda Post has been able to verify that this email is genuine. However, it is not been possible to establish who made the posting which Rev. Nakabaale has denied.

Our source in Ggwangamujje Boston has told this reporter that the “not so smart” impersonation of Rev. is clearly an attempt to confuse the Boston community about Kaasa’s true personality and Buganda credentials, a typical NRM technique. According to the source: “It is a fact that Kaasa has management skills issues but his commitment to Buganda is 100%.  The NRM and UNAA diehards simply want to damage him so much that when by the November 9, 2008 general meeting he will have no credibility to retain his chairmanship. In the end, however, it is all about a couple of individuals who stand to be financially rewarded by Museveni for killing Ttabamiruka ’09. And changing the date from September to July 4th, which Kaasa is fighting, would be a huge step towards the cash.”

The full text of the email that Rev. Nakabaale Kaasa sent to Buganda Post, to clarify his position is reproduced in full below. Spelling corrections were made to words appearing in [brackets].

From: bumaaya buganda bumaaya@yahoo.com
To: info@bugandapost.com
Cc: Bumaaya@yahoo.com
Sent: Tuesday, November 4, 2008 10:46:11 PM
Subject: Impostor/ Imposter
Bugandapost website,
 
Thank you so much for exposing the NRM activities. Right now am writing on the  Ggwangamujje Boston Chapter  2008 matter that has appeared on your web site on  25th September  and  31st October 2008.

I [am] the true Chairman of the Ggwangamujje  Boston, Massachusetts USA writing this article.  I was shocked today to read your  posting that I sent to you an  e-mail today   8th November 2008 at 10:08 am. At this time of posting, I was at my work place and did not touch any computer.

I  did not write to you therefore the whole world must know this article has been written  by someone  amongst us “OLULIRA MUNNYANA” It is  an imposture of  low [caliber]. Yes, it is not well in the Ggwangamujje Boston camp. It is true I have [convened] a general meeting on 9th November 2008  at precisely 4:00pm at 14 Felton Street in Waltham for all Bostonians  to come and screen the  officials including myself in order to weed out OLUMBUGU.
 
I [am] so embarrassed that  Mr. Joe Magandazi has been implicated in these unintellectual tactics. [Therefore] I request all the readers to  wait for the full version of the episode after the next meeting on  the November 2008. Yes, my telephone is  617.458.1968  as reported but I will not answer any blocked calls or no  ID numbers.

Signed,

Rev. Nnakabaale  Kaasa  …( Omuliga)
Musajja wa Kabaka