We need our own Nyamutoro - says UMA president Cindy

The singer noted that the association, for which she serves as president, has been leapfrogged and overshadowed by Eddy Kenzo’s Uganda National Musicians Federation (UNMF) which has been around for just over a year.

The Blue 3 songstress believes UMA has not found any favour from the government because they are too professional.

“The problem is that we are not thieves,” she said.

“In Uganda when you are doing the right thing, big people in the government will not support you. They prefer the one doing shoddy work through which they can steal.

“They know if they work with me, I will give the money to the artists and they cannot steal it.”

As a solution, Cindy said UMA would be far ahead if they had an intermediary of their own that pushes their agenda to the government.

She gave the example of Eddy Kenzo, whose relationship with Minerals Minister Phiona Nyamutoro, she believes, has paved the way for UNMF to get support from the government.

“At the moment we have all the energy but we don't have any money,” she said.

“With the federation, they got Nyamutoro. Maybe we also need one of us to date a big person…perhaps a minister.

"It's bad that Fiina (Mugerwa – UMA Secretary General) is already married. We’d get ourselves someone like Kenzo got Nyamutoro,” she added.

Cindy added, "All these years, Ugandans have known me as the President of musicians, but I have never met a big person. Yet Nyamutoro just came around recently and there they are, meeting the president.”

UNMF recently got a big boost after their President Eddy Kenzo was appointed Senior Presidential Advisor on Creatives by President Museveni.

The Federation has also received billions of shillings from the government to support its musicians’ Sacco.