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Shift Media News 
By AWORI ESTHER LUCY
KAMPALA-SHIFTMEDIA- The Covid 19 pandemic that has left scores jobless and cashless has affected musicians and artists more.
The struggling artists are now utilizing the situation to unite so as to benefit from the Covid 19 cash relief promised by President Museveni.
The latest we can report is that the scramble for the relief funds has instead led to disunity as scores of leading artists are forming parallel associations.
Though many Ugandan artists were already registered under the Uganda Musicians Associations (UMA) headed by musician Cindy Sanyu, local artist and former Kampala Mayoral Contestant Joseph Mayanja aka Jose Chameleon has also registered the Uganda Musician Federation (UMF) that has scores of the so-called ‘Super Stars’.
This new parallel body has however not bothered the UMA President Cindy who says her association is strong and has many members.
“I am not bothered about the new Federation formed by Chameleon. What I know is that UMA is very strong and on the ground. We have been present and have structures,” he said.
She said with support from Sylvia Owor of the Operation Wealth Creation (OWC). They had secured over shs100m that is already revolving among the cash-strapped artists.
Inside sources reveal that following President Museveni’s promise of giving the artists some cash relief in billions, the time is now for musicians to register and unite if they are to benefit.
But according to Cindy, UMA will always remain strong despite the new Federation. “What I know is that the superstars in the UMF have UMA cards including Jose Chameleon. None of them has returned our membership cards, so we assume they are still our members,” she said.
The top UMA and UMF members met in Kampala on Friday to try to harmonize their position, though the meeting hit a dead end and was pushed to another day.
