Muhangi free but boxing still locked in jail

Uganda could miss the 2023 African Boxing Championships due June 13 in Yaounde, Cameroon because the federation is in dire financial straits.

Uganda Boxing Federation president Moses Muhangi spent 13 days in Luzira Prisons but the evening he was released on bail on May 31, National Council of Sports (NCS) locked up UBF offices in Lugogo, until Shs10m rent arrears are cleared.

UBF should pay NCS Shs500,000 per month in rent, meaning the Sh10m has accumulated over 20 months.

But Muhangi said the closure was uncalled for. “It’s a matter of them (NCS) debiting our balance which they haven’t released,” he told Daily Monitor.

In the 2022-23 financial year, the government allocated Shs3b to UBF. It was cut to Shs1b. But Muhangi said the federation has received only Shs133m. “But it is just days to the end of the financial year, we have not received the balance of over Shs800m, yet NCS got all the money from government.

“The federation only gets money from government and mobilization from other sources. Does NCS expect us to use the money from our mobilisation to pay rent yet they have refused to give us our money?”

He added: “It’s understandable if we were renting a private building but we expected NCS to understand why we haven’t paid.”

Muhangi, who has been very vocal against NCS’s distribution of federation funds, still faces charges of forgery and falsification when accounting for government funds to UBF. He sees the office closure as an episode in the witch-hunt against him.

“It’s petty that you decide to fail a sport because you disagree with its federation president,” he said. “They want to frustrate us but they are killing boxing.”

At the African Championship in Maputo, Mozambique last year, Yusuf Nkobeza and Jonah Kyobe won bronze and $2500 (about Shs9m) each, in prize money.

But for missing out on several international assignments since 2018—when Muhangi assumed presidency—Uganda missed out on the IBA rankings. Next, Muhangi fears, could lose continental and international affiliation.

Worse still, Muhangi said, the federation will struggle organising national events like the Novices and Intermediates.

No one at NCS was ready for a response. David Katende, the assistant general secretary-technical, referred us to his boss Bernard Patrick Ogwel. But Ogwel said he was attending a burial and could not address us.

Sports minister Peter Ogwang did not answer our phone calls either.

Muhangi also questioned the logic in the new proposed budget allocation to netball and boxing—two sports whose federation bosses have openly accused NCS of corruption.

“Last year you allocated Shs3b to netball. This year, when they are preparing for the World Cup you give them Sh300m? What’s the criteria? Does it even make sense?”