40 confirmed for East Africa varsity games
Eng Patrick Ssekigongo (left) leads a delegation from participating universities to tour the facilities. 40 universities have so far confirmed participation. PHOTO/GEORGE KATONGOLE
What you need to know:
Many universities across the region are still recovering from the shockwaves of the Covid-19 lockdown. In Uganda, for instance, no university has first year students, who contribute a great percentage of fees to the coffers.
The original plan was to have more than 60 universities from across the East African region take part in the Eastern Africa University Games scheduled for Ndejje in about a fortnight. The games will be held from December 16-20, 2022
But according to the final list released by the organisers, the entry list falls short of 20 universities as 44 have been confirmed as per the deadline. Instead of the expected 40,000 athletes, a total of 2,685 athletes will compete in the 20 disciplines over five days at Ndejje main campus in Luweero.
Uganda’s contingent of 20 universities will be the biggest followed by Kenya with 12. The rest will be from Tanzania.
Ndejje University, the defending champions, will present the biggest contingent of 207 athletes followed by Makerere University with 138.
There are no qualms for the organisers as Florence Nakamya, the head of the secretariat explains that universities are still sorting out their financial issues.
“We are flexible until the last day and many universities are expected to confirm in the coming days. What we have now are the universities that have fully confirmed their payments,” Nakamya said.
Rwanda, Burundi miss out
Many universities across the region are still recovering from the shockwaves of the Covid-19 lockdown. In Uganda, for instance, no university has first year students, who contribute a great percentage of fees to the coffers.
It is not surprising that sports powerhouses Kampala University and Uganda Christian University (UCU) Mukono were yet to confirm their places.
Surprisingly, Rwanda, who have the University of Rwanda as members of Eastern Africa University Sports Federation (EAUSF), will not present participants. EAUSF has 94 member universities including three from Burundi.
It is understood that both countries pulled out of the event, so is South Sudan.
Following frozen diplomatic relations, teams from Burundi have skipped numerous sporting events since Burundi accused Rwanda of backing a coup attempt against it in 2015. It is not confirmed whether their travels are impeded by the rocky relations.
Uganda has also been at loggerheads with Kigali for almost three years and this could explain why Rwandan institutions are skipping the event.
