Mulindwa has to be a super proud man
View Point: Andrew Mwanguhya
Lawrence Mulindwa emerged from the directors VIP wing and eased his imposing self in a welcoming seat.
His successor as Fufa president, Moses Magogo, sat some metres away to his left as part of social distancing.
Below Mulindwa, a sea of beautifully laid out red seats; and to his left the only real media tribune at a stadium in the country.
An artificial turf, excellently rolled out in 2018, and a real state-of-the-art dugout for both sets of teams and match officials complement every other thing around.
Across, a general wing that has since been fitted with seats completes an-all seater 20,000-capacity facility, as quoted by the home club - Vipers.
Further inside the St Mary’s facility in Kitende, you are met by classy dressing rooms, offices, press conference room, name it.
In the parking a beautiful Vipers bus, and another belonging to St Mary’s Kitende - the school, calm next to each other. The Cranes bus soon joined. Not far, a brand new Vipers ambulance, fully fitted with all that matters. Pride all around!
You could see, sense that pride around the man responsible for all this back inside the stadium.
Two of his Vipers players – Karim Watambala and match winner Halid Lwaliwa – were to go on and help the Cranes to victory over South Sudan.
The creator of Lwaliwa’s 85th minute winner, Faruku Miya, provided the start-up capital for this beautiful stadium when he was sold by Vipers to Belgian side, Standard Liege for $400,000 (Shs1.4b today) in 2016.
This venue has already hosted underage continental engagements, as well as club continental matches, but this was the first time an Afcon qualifier was being played here.
At a time when Namboole has been turned into a Covid-19 treatment centre, and St Mary’s being the only facility in the country approved by Caf to host this, Mulindwa couldn’t have been prouder.
He has given back to the country for ages to come.
The government should now give back to Mulindwa, who paid Shs400m in taxes for the artificial turf alone, by waiving taxes on all sports equipment if they are really serious about sports development.
