Five vanish in Gold Coast
Ugandan Bomber Nasir did not last more than one fight during his stay at the Games in Gold Coast. PHOTO BY ISMAIL KEZAALA
What you need to know:
- Commonwealth Games. At the 2014 Games, rugby players Benon Kiiza and Phillip Pariyo disappeared in Glasgow.
- The two are prospering in the United Kingdom where Pariyo plays professional rugby with Wanderers RFC while Kiiza is living a way better life, too.
KAMPALA.
If hiding from the authorities, never to be found wins you a medal, Uganda would be five more gold medals richer.
This after three more Ugandan athletes went missing from Gold Coast yesterday as the team prepared to board the plane for the long journey back home.
Boxers Bashir Nasir and Regarn Simbwa, and female table tennis player Halima Nambozo sneaked out of the Games Village on the final day of operation at the residential area of all countries.
It is understood that the three had been hatching their plans of running away while in Australia, and had craftily kept away the plot from their colleagues.
No good deals
Earlier this week, Daily Monitor tried to read between the lines, but in a Facebook chat, one of the boxers assured us that they are all returning to Kampala after potential suitors failed to give them good deals.
The latest vanishing act brings to five the total number of Ugandan athletes that have run away from camp in Australia after weightlifters Irene Kasuubo and Khalid Batuusa went missing last weekend.
Yet five is just a fraction of the ever-growing number of Ugandan athletes who disappear in the Diaspora. Australian authorities warned of a massive operation to smoke out all persons staying illegally, but if Simbwa and Bashir - the most experienced boxers now - are not netted and deported, it will mean 13 boxers have stayed abroad since May 2016.
At the 2014 Commonwealth Games rugby players Benon Kiiza and Philip Pariyo disappeared in Glasgow. The two are prospering in the United Kingdom where Pariyo plays professional rugby with Wanderers RFC while Kiiza is living a way better life, going by his posts on social media.
Last October, the National Rugby Sevens again lost three more: Ramathan Govule, Brian Kikaawa and Fred ‘Pepe’ Odur disappeared after the Oktoberfest Sevens in Munich, Germany. Many netballers stayed in USA after the 2016 World University Championships in Miami. It is a growing trend. A serious problem that robs Uganda of talent. But one bound to continue as long as Africa looks hell and other continents paradise.
Additional reporting by Mark Namanya
