Kipsiro boycotts World x-try over death threats
Kipsiro walks away with his bag after departing from the rest of the team in Lugogo on Wednesday afternoon. PHOTOS BY ISMAIL KEZAALA
KAMPALA. Team Uganda will line up for the World Cross-country Championships in Guiyang, China on Saturday without the country’s biggest medal prospect.
Moses Kipsiro is on strike. He has boycotted the event at which he was widely expected to win a third individual medal and steer the senior men’s team to success.
He is protesting Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF) and Uganda Police’s reluctance to take action against coach Peter Wemali.
Boycotting, the runner said, was the only option left to let the world know of the pain he and his family are going through because of a wrong character being protected by authorities.
“I have cried out enough,” Kipsiro told Daily Monitor in an interview yesterday. “Let me stay here, maybe something will be done.” “I am also not settled mentally. I can’t concentrate on running under the circumstances however fit I might be.”
Kipsiro and Wemali fell out last year after the runner sided with junior female runners that accused the coach of sexually harassing them.
As team captain, Kipsiro then demanded that coach Wemali, a police officer, be dismissed from the Africa Cross-country Championships camp in Bukwo. Police launched an investigation into the sexual harassment allegations but no action was taken.
UAF also claimed they suspended Wemali but he showed up at the National Cross-country Championships in Jinja in February. At the Jinja event, Wemali worked as an official and shared a table with former UAF president Daniel Tamwesigyire.
“Since last year, Wemali has been after me,” a sad Kipsiro narrated. “In February, he was behind the beating of my brother during the national cross-country in Jinja and the federation and police didn’t do anything,” he added. “If my brother was a murderer like they claimed when they attacked him in Jinja, how come he hasn’t been arrested?” he queried referring to the incident in which his elder brother Ben Sande Nawari was assaulted by a group of men claiming to be police officers. They carried handcuffs but had no arrest warrant.
“Early this month, after returning from USA, I joined the World Cross-country training camp in Kapchorwa. But the moment I switched on my Safaricom line, I started receiving calls from someone who was not willing to tell me his name. He kept calling me whenever I moved out of the camp,” he narrated. “I got the feeling that I was being tracked. I switched off the phone and told the team coaches that I was leaving the camp. I felt unsafe. I returned home and decided to skip the competition in China.”
But a few days ago, Kipsiro had a change of mind after receiving a call from UAF general secretary Beatrice Ayikoru.
He decided to travel to China and feature at what would have been his last World Cross-country.
“Beatrice convinced me and promised to address the matter after returning from China,” he said. Yesterday morning, he travelled with the 19 other national team runners from Kapchorwa to Kampala. He, however, refused to proceed to Entebbe after receiving a threatening message on his phone.
The message, from 0779 831637 read: continue putting me on press and tarnish me but remember one day, Chelimo will leave you or die and I will deal with you trust me. Chelimo (Julius), a soldier, is Kipsiro’s close friend.
Wemali denied he sent the threatening message.
“I have no time to send a text message to threaten someone’s life,” Wemali told us. “I will never do it because I am not a fool to do such and get caught. Actually it is Kipsiro’s brother who is after me.”
But Kipsiro insisted Wemali was behind the attacks.
“He uses other people to do his dirty work. I am sure he used someone’s phone to send me that message,” Kipsiro, who won Uganda’s only gold medal (10,000m) at last year’s Commonwealth Games, said in an assured tone.
Shortly after the team had been flagged off by Vice-president Edward Ssekandi at Lugogo yesterday, Kipsiro had a meeting with UAF boss Dominic Otucet and Ayikoru.
“I showed them the message but I realised they were not bothered,” narrated Kipsiro.
It’s then that Kipsiro decided to remove his bag from the team bus and return to Bweyogerere where he had booked a hotel as the rest of the runners, most in a gloomy mood, headed to Entebbe. Today, the runner expects to meet the Inspector General of Police, Kale Kayihura and narrate to him his ordeal.
“I hope he will be of help since all the other officers below him have frustrated me,” he said.
Meanwhile, coaches Nalis Bigingo and Benjamin Longiross, who handled the runners in camp also didn’t travel with the team.
UAF organising secretary Faustino Kiwa and Ayikoru will now act as coaches on Saturday.
Kipsiro was equally unhappy that coaches who did all the donkey work won’t be in China.
