Despite her experience of participating in seven international beauty pageants, Namiiro’s pick for Miss Uganda has created controversy, a curse following every organiser time after time, writes Robert Kalumba

The press conference at the Imperial Royale Hotel, Primose Hall last Monday – a day after the new Miss Uganda was crowned – was, to say the least, a bruising verbal contest between the Miss Uganda organisers and the press.

After the introductory niceties were out of the way, sleeves were rolled and the punches took over; Joyce Church, owner of the current Miss Uganda franchise and organiser of the recently concluded beauty pageant threw the first jab. “I don’t understand why people are questioning our choice for Miss Uganda. Do you know this girl here is the first Miss Uganda to ever travel to Northern Uganda and do some charity work there?” she raged as the bemused press people looked on.

George Male, a photographer cum reporter for the Red Pepper wasn’t having any of that. He asked for the microphone with an urgency of a doctor attending to a dying patient, “No, you are wrong and possibly lying,” he shouted. “I have pictorial evidence. Personally, I have gone to Northern Uganda with many former Miss Uganda winners like Dr Rehema Nakuya and Salma Nassanga. So she is not the first Miss Uganda to go up there,” he responded with a rebuttal that floored the organisers, including the Head Judge of the contest, Sola Oyebade. Also in attendance were newly crowned Miss Uganda Maria Namiiro, her father John Mutebi Kizito and the current Mr Uganda Brian Lukiya.

Miss Uganda 2009: Maria Namiiro

It was such a lively press conference.
The organisers of the recently concluded Miss Uganda had run into a little bother and they wanted to set the record straight, hence the hurriedly arranged press conference. The problem stems from the winner, Maria Namiiro. She lives, studies, works and is a citizen of Britain. So how then did a “Briton” win Miss Uganda? That was the major query.

That dispute led to accusations that the organisers set up the whole event, and the problem is, like Namiiro, they are all based in Britain.

What happened last Saturday is a tip of an iceberg of what a poisoned chalice the Miss Uganda pageant has over the years turned out to be. If it’s not allegations of fixing, then its contestants not getting their promised prizes. It’s a rollercoaster of problems when it comes to the beauty contest. But why has it turned out this way? Who is to blame? What is the history of the problems that have followed the beauty contests? And are there any hopes of having a scandal-free contest?

Things actually kicked off promisingly with a company named Promos who in the 1990s, organised Miss Uganda contests.

Sylvia Owori took over from the Promos in 2001, running it till 2004. Her reign is remembered for having given the contest a splash of glitz and glamour that started from the build-up of the regional beauty contests, to the contestants’ boot camp and finally, to the event that was held at Speke Hotel Munyonyo’s lakeside. There was a sense of professionalism and razzmatazz all put together that made the Miss Uganda beauty contest a must-attend in Kampala.

But despite all the professionalism, rumours floated around of non payment of staff by Owori. Things bubbled over when her production manager Muhammad Mukasa Nseera in 2004 dragged her to court for not paying him. This case was a precursor for what was to come during Solaya Zalwango’s reign that not only “killed” the contest in the public’s eye, but could have put off corporate sponsorship to the event, at least for now.

Solaya Zalwango’s reign took off from 2006 till 2008 and is remembered by both the former Miss Uganda winners and the public for having added sleaze to the event. “She is the one person that brought the whole event to disrepute,” says Monica Kasyate, Miss Uganda 2007. According to her, not only didn’t she get her promised prizes that included a brand new car, $3,000, a makeup kit and a new wardrobe, but also Zalwango abandoned her the moment the event was over. “She never called me, never kept me abreast with what was happening to my promised prizes. She never basically cared about me,” says Kasyate.

Dora Mwima, Miss Uganda 2008 too had the same complaints. “This woman had me hunting her down the whole of Kampala to enquire about my prizes. And when I finally got hold of her and set up an appointment, she always never turned up and had her phone switched off,” she laments.

Dora Mwima (2008)

For Praise Asiimwe, Miss Uganda 2006, hers was even a more painful saga; she was crowned with no “crown” at all. Somehow, the crown got “lost” on that big day. According to her, Zalwango amongst the many prizes, promised her a scholarship to the UK to study Public Relations in exchange for the promised prized car. “I never got anything,” she says.

In other words, in all her reign as organiser of Miss Uganda, Zalwango never fulfilled her obligations to the winners. And unlike Zalwango, Owori despite rumours of funds embezzlement, at least managed to give winners of 2001 and 2003 beauty contestants Victoria Nabunya and Salma Nassanga their cars.

However, Zalwango has a different story to tell. “There are many things that happened between me and the sponsors that I can’t divulge, that affected my performance as the organiser of these beauty pageants,” she said.

Praise Asiimwe, Miss Uganda 2006,

But a promise is a promise. If the organisers promised cars, then its cars indeed. It’s a question of integrity, no?

“Those cars were courtesy cars. They were meant to be used by the winners to do charity work and then given back to us,” The same view is echoed by her then sponsors, Uganda Telecom. “It was in the girl’s contracts that they were contract cars,” states Mark Kaheru, Utl’s public relations manager.

The girls disagree though. “When they were advertising the prizes in the newspapers, radios and TV, did you here anything like, ‘the winner will get a courtesy car’”? asks Kasyate who claims the contracts didn’t mention anything like contract cars.

It’s this back and forth arguments that spilled into the public domain, with the media jumping into the fray focusing mainly on the plight of the winners, who in the public’s eye, were not living the status befitting of a Miss Uganda. Things were not helped when sponsors like Uganda Telecom and Air Uganda pulled out of the whole franchise, cementing the perception that the beauty contest was a total sham.

Enter, Joyce and Chris Church, a married couple as the new owners of the Miss Uganda franchise under the company name Performance Production. “We knew of the hardships the previous franchise owner faced. Actually, the reason we were contacted by the organisers of Miss World asking us to take over from Zalwango was because they were displeased with the way Miss Uganda was being run and also impressed with the way we were running Miss Uganda UK,” says Ms Church who claims they have been running the beauty contest in UK since 2000.

With Performance Production on board, was a much needed facelift to the beauty contest on its way or was it another false dawn? For starters, there were no regional beauty contests, a hallmark to all Miss Uganda events.  No kind of substantial advertisement on radio, newspapers or television about the contest was done. The judges in the finals with the exception of Eva Mbabazi, who actually resides in Britain and Rajesh Nair, organiser of Miss India Uganda beauty contest, were all flown in from Britain. The mea culpa was the eventual winner being a British resident. Everyone, it seemed, was from Britain. A ruckus was inevitable.

“First, we didn’t have any kind of sponsorship; it was my money being used. So we did what we could do,” Ms Church argued. “As for the judges coming from London, I thought that would add a little professionalism to the contest. These judges are known internationally.” Although she admitted that not having a Ugandan judge was an oversight, she stressed that it didn’t mean she fixed the results by bringing the judges here. “Where would I get the money from?”she asked.

The head judge Sola Oyebade was more enraged. “This is my first time in Uganda. I judge competitions all over the world. Google me and you will know the kind of calibre you are accusing of cheating. Actually two girls were neck to neck in the finals; that is Joan Atieno and Maria Namiiro. So we chose who was suited best to represent Uganda in a competition that has over 150 intimidating girls from all over the world. I believed, Namiiro who has participated in over seven international beauty pageants had a slight advantage over Atieno,” Oyedade said.

Atieno though disagreed. When the winner was announced, she attempted to storm off stage in protest, before she was restrained by Oyebade. “That act alone confirmed to me that I had picked the right choice. Can you imagine storming off because you haven’t won? Where is the professionalism?” he asks. He also admitted though, that a Ugandan judge would have added more clout to the judging panel.

Truth be told, with the experience of participating in seven international beauty pageants including Miss Africa UK and the exposure of living abroad, Namiiro was a shade better than all the contestants who had never competed in any pageant before. But that did not seem to matter much to the crowd that evening.

Ms Church has promised some changes. “Next time we will work on the winner of Miss Uganda in Kampala competing in the Miss Uganda UK to make it as fair as possible.”

So does Namiiro get a car? “No. But she will get a paid holiday in Britain.”
That alone was the cue Male needed to chip in, “but she is based in Britain? How does one get holiday in a country were they are residing?” he asked quizzically. The Miss Uganda saga continues.

*Tit bits about Maria Namiiro
• She was born in Mulago Hospital on August 20, 1988
• She left Uganda when she was four years old, to be with her parents in London.
• She is a daughter to Mr John Mutebi Kizito, a mechanic in Mitcham, South London and Ms Sarah Kizito, a housewife.
• Namiiro is a diploma holder in Air Stewarding.
• Her favourite food is matooke and groundnut sauce mixed with fish.
• Her favourite Ugandan artiste is Juliana Kanyomozi.
• Not only did she win the Miss Uganda crown, she also won the Best traditional/creative wear category.

* Former Miss Uganda winners
• Jessica Kyeyune      1990/91
• Olga Nampima         1992/93
• Linda Bazalaki         1993/94
• Sheba Kerere          1995/96
• Lillian Acom             1997 (Held the crown for three years till Owori took over)
• Victoria Nabunya     2001/02
• Rehma Nakuya        2002/03
• Aisha Salma Nassanga     2003/04
• Barbara Kimbugwe  2004-
• Praise Asiimwe        2006/07
• Monica Kasyate       2007/08
• Dora Mwiima           2008/09
• Maria Namiiro          2009
by Robert Kalumba