Is Mulindwa up to any good?
The big man syndrome is very evident at St Mary’s Kitende-based Vipers Sports Club. But like many other family-initiated and governed institutions, it is hard to completely do away with it. Forgive my unpermissive language but it remains tough to run away from the fact that Dr Lawrence Mulindwa is a full embodiment of a bull in a China shop.The Covid-19 pandemic has seen a new philosophy being implemented at Kitende.
Signings have come in thick and fast, sales to greener pastures abroad have been sanctioned as well as mutual consent departures. The technical bench has also endured a wave of change with everything pointing to Fred Kajoba’s wish list. But if that isn’t al-ready hanging oneself then it’s literally putting the rope around the neck, albeit loosely.
Kajoba one side, the appointments made by the colossus at the helm of the club cannot be ignored. From the new chief executive Simon Peter Njuba, to Sporting Director Charles Masembe and General Manager (GM) Steven Mulindwa, one thing is consistent that Mulindwa prefers either sleeping with the enemy he knows or keeping his cards close to his chest – whichever way one looks at it.
From the roles mentioned above, one doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to conclude that Mulindwa has given power with one hand and slyly taken it back with the other.Many journalists stayed away from the fact that new GM Steven is actually the Honorary Fufa president’s son.
Yet I find no wrong in that. The Agnelli family has unrelentlessly held forte at Juventus since 1967 – enjoyng the highs and sucking in the lows in equal measure.
Although he is still a wide-eyed young man, 24-year-old Steven must positively take the criticism rather than walk around the corridors of Kitende with an aura of invincibility because he is the ‘Headmasters’’ son.
It is the only way he will grow into his own man and keep his father’s empire afloat.For Masembe, who worked as Fufa chief executive during Mulindwa’s era, pundits have looked at the reunion as one where the rich man glanced over his shoulder, offered a handshake but quickly turned it into a hug by extending an olive branch to a ‘brother’ for an un-disclosed period.
But I shudder to think there are going to be no tax-free holidays for the former Fifa referee. The rich man is ruthless and intent on keeping the institution running like a well-oiled machine. Vipers harbour a galaxy of ambitions both home and on the continent in the up-coming season.
The big boss will take no prisoners in reading out the riot act and forthwith spit some ‘Venom’. A man with extraordinary powers, Mulindwa bears the vision.
Unfortunately, fate may de-cide otherwise with ‘his people’ derailing him. To the new recruits, welcome to the ‘Jungle’ where man is feared more than animals. And in the jungle, only the animals survive.
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