Muhwezi visit splits Uganda Boston diaspora

The visit to Boston by Uganda’s Security Minister Jim Katugugu Muhwezi left the Uganda community in a deep dispute over his invitation to drop by the Uganda Boston Community Association Offices.

Muhwezi was welcomed to the office, which is an independent umbrella organization for Ugandans in Boston of various political affiliations.  There is, however, a strong presence of the opposition National Unity Platform members. Muhwezi had gone to Boston to attend the 20th anniversary of the International Community of the Banyakigezi Convention (ICOB) which was held in the city between 7th and 10th July 2023. He is one of the influential political leaders from Kigezi.  He then visited the UBCA offices where he was welcomed by Maureen Asiimwe, president of the UBCA. Muhwezi was accompanied by two officials of the International Convention of the Banyakigezi.

The visit has been criticized by many opposition figures in Boston including Dr Daniel Kawuma, NUP Diaspora Team Leader, who said in a statement that Muhwezi’s history makes him unwelcome to the Uganda Boston Community Association Offices. Muhwezi was in the 1990s censured by the Uganda Parliament over abuse of office; IN 2009, he was sacked together with two deputies and charged with misappropriation of funds, causing financial loss to the Government and the donor, the Global Fund; embezzlement and forgery of documents. He was remanded to prison. The money in question was $ 45 million that was embezzled in the Ministry when he was Minister of Health. It was meant to support health campaigns against Malaria, TB, and HIV/Aids. Kawuma said that Muhwezi also presides over a Ministry that has been associated with the disappearance of many young opposition supporters.

Other cyber warriors took to social media to attack Maureen Asiimwe, that by allowing Muhwezi into the UBCA offices, she had allowed an attack on the association and its members by a top agent of the Uganda state and that it was the start of infiltration of the association by Uganda state agents.

Ms. Asiimwe accorded Muhwezi a two-year membership of the UBCA, a gesture Muhwezi appreciated. It was not immediately established what Jim Muhwezi gifted the UBCA with.

Maureen Asiimwe hit back at critics saying it was an act of diplomacy to welcome a senior Uganda official who had come to town and had toured many places. She said in a missive to former NUP diaspora President and sharp critic Herman Aainebyoona.

“I wonder why transparency is hated and idiocrasy apprehended. The guy came and moved into the whole community without any issues when people were happy and thrilled to see him.  People knelt to greet him, he bought people food, sat and ate in a community restaurant, and also was going on a radio program hadn't the Deputy. Ambassador called him. Is this move around the community stirred by UBCA offices? Come on you guys, grow up and think twice. If a person comes to your house or doorstep, you welcome the person to sit and see what they got to say, then devise measures to curb such a visit if u do not want it.”

The social media war at some point went nasty and native with exposures and allegations of financial impropriety against some of Maureen Asiimwe’s accusers. Other commentators were of the view, however, that whatever the differences between the NUP leaders and Maureen Asiimwe, she would not have hosted Muhwezi in the public office of UBCA, but rather at a private residence. They suggested that Ms Asiimwe should have pinned Muhwezi on the many young opposition activists now incarcerated in ungazetted houses and in prisons in Uganda. They argued that with the visit of Jim Muhwezi, there were genuine fears that Uganda state agents would start infiltrating the Boston community.

There were, nonetheless, other anti-Muhwezi activities that happened in Boston. In one instance a group of protesters, dressed in red outfits and berets staged a modest protest outside the hotel where Muhwezi was staying. The organizers of the demonstration said that Muhwezi left the hotel through a side exit to avoid the demonstrators. The other was a 45-minute walk demonstration through the streets of Waltham, Massachusetts.  

Activism or Radicalism?

The protests against Minister Jim Muhwezi is the latest in a string of actions staged against officials from some African governments visiting Western countries on different assignments.

Recently former Ugandan Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi was heckled and abused by a group of demonstrators who raided the hotel where he was staying in London. Amama Mbabazi only managed to leave the hotel under a Police guard. He had gone to London both on official business and for a medical checkup.  Even after leaving office, Amama Mbabazi remained close to Uganda President Yoweri Museveni who last year appointed him senior presidential advisor.

Last year, opposition protesters staged demonstrations outside the hospital in Seattle where the Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Oulanya had been flown for specialized medical attention. Protestors said that the Ugandan Government fails to provide basic medical care in its hospitals but flies out senior government officials using taxpayers’ money in expensive specialized hospitals abroad. Other demonstrations were staged against Minister Anite, for Investment when she went to study for a Master’s degree and former Minister Kibuule.

In June a Senegalese musician and an ardent supporter of Senegal’s President Macky Sall was beaten in Paris and was badly beaten while walking on the street from his hotel. The attackers were Senegalese in the diaspora who accused him of supporting a government that they accused of mismanaging national resources while they go on shopping sprees in Paris and other western capitals. The man, identified as Demba Ndiaye Ndillaa. He confirmed to AFP confirmed he was the one assaulted in the videos that went viral.

He said he was leaving the Senegalese ambassador’s residence in Paris ahead of a reception for President Sall on June 21, 2023, and was heading to the underground train (metro).

These incidents have prompted questions and reflections on the usefulness and impact of this type of street activism by Africans in the diaspora. Is it true activism or something bordering on extremism?  Do they have any impact on the home countries or the host countries?

Magomu Tanyebwa, writing in Uganda’s Daily Monitor in June said that this kind of insulting and name-calling borders on hate and it does not advance the cause of the opposition.  Other critics argue that Africans in the diaspora enjoy the freedoms of movement and speech in host countries but they don’t want fellow nationals from competing political groups to enjoy similar freedoms.

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