NCS, UOC bury the hatchet finally

Ambrose Tashobya

Kampala- National Council of Sports (NCS) and Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) yesterday afternoon signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aimed at pushing the two warring bodies to bury their differences.
The event happened at the NCS offices in Lugogo in the presence of the Minister of State for Sports Charles Bakkabulindi and the media.
Wrangles between UOC and NCS have been on for eons but took a more divisive turn in January when the latter unsuccessfully tried to halt the former’s elections.
NCS went on to declare the elections null and avoid while its general secretary Nicholas Muramagi accused the Olympic body of etablishing briefcase associations and stressed; “we do not recognize the UOC executive and they are not established under any law in Uganda.”
For now, the two parties claim they recognize each other’s role in the development of sport.

“Whereas it is recognized that there have been some disagreements between UOC and NCS, UOC regrets and hereby withdraws its past public statements that may tantamount to challenging and not recognizing the legal mandate of NCS registering National Associations and Federations,” UOC general secretary Dr Donald Rukare read from a statement.
The two bodies will within the next three months from yesterday (May 24, 2017) write a more detailed MOU spelling out each other’s roles and mandate.
“UOC will undertake a constitutional review process to align its constitution with the laws of Uganda in particular the NCS Act and 2014 NCS Regulation…,” Rukare continued in a document that also promised that UOC will cease recognizing sports bodies that have not complied with NCS. UOC will also subsequently hold elections under the revised constitution.
The absence of UOC president William Blick was louder than the cheers in the room when his vice president Ambrose Tashobya and NCS chairman Bosco Onyik exchanged documents to mark the new development.
“We got his (Blick) blessing but he is away in Algeria. This process has been going on for long behind the curtains and he is aware we are here,” Tashobya shared.