Makumbi, Mudin and Ochaga: Sweepers that marshaled defences

RICHARD MAKUMBI

Makumbi is among the very few all-rounders that Ugandan football has seen. During his glittering career, Makumbi featured in almost all positions on the pitch right from goalkeeping.
He was one day in 1990 forced to put on the gloves and replace then-injured Fred Kajoba when Coffee was playing build up matches in Mwanza, Tanzania.His football career started at the Lugazi-based sugar factory football club, Scoul. He started out as a defender.

In 1977, he joined Police where he spent a short spell before relocating to second division side Bell FC then coached by former Cranes’ player George Bukenya.
At Bell, Makumbi played as a striker. At Luzira, Makumbi proved to be a deadly striker and it did not come as a surprise when he scored the vital goal that helped Bell earn promotion in 1980. Makumbi’s romance with Bell however didn’t last long. At the end of their debut topflight season, Makumbi left as Bell were relegated. Jinja-based Nile came calling.

Having been born in Iganga in 60s, the neighboruing Jinja wasn’t an alien place. At Nile, coach Natal Mwaka made Makumbi the sweeper thereby replacing Cloves Ssegujja who had left for Express. He was instrumental in the Nile team of 1981 that made history by becoming the first Ugandan side to beat Africa’s most successful football club, Al Ahly of Egypt. 

During the second round first leg match played at Nakivubo, Makumbi and Daktari Jalobo scored for Nile in a 2-0 win before succumbing to a 5-0 defeat to the Egyptians in the second leg in Cairo to bow out of the tournament.During his career, Makumbi also played for Coffee, Express and Buikwe Red Stars. In 1985, he was part of the Coffee team that was destined for league victory before being controversially deducted three points by the federation towards the end of the season. That gave KCCA the title.

In 1987, Makumbi ditched Coffee for Express where he spent a season before signing for Buikwe Red Stars. He rejoined Coffee in 1990. That Coffee side finished second in the league, two points behind Villa.
For Uganda, Makumbi’s debut was against Ethiopia in the 1983 Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup tournament hosted by Kenya.In the semifinals against Zimbabwe, coach Peter Okee moved him to centre half to replace the suspended John Latigo.

Makumbi was also a penalty specialist. He routinely converted them until the 1984 Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup semifinals when he missed one against Malawi in Mbale. Uganda was knocked out.Makumbi retired in 1991 to take up a coaching job at Scoul FC. The “magician,” as he is usually referred to in his coaching career, Makumbi has guided a number of clubs to the premier division. Those include; Scoul, Iganga TC, Mukono Lions, Buikwe Red Stars, Fire Masters, Bunamwaya (Vipers), Bidco (Bul), Utoda, Kitala  and Western Stima of Kenya to mention a few.

MAKUMBI FACTFILE                
ACHIEVEMENTS
l  Played for Scoul, Bell, Police, Nile, Coffee, Express and Buikwe Red Stars.
l Was part of the Nile FC side that defeated Egyptian Al Ahly 2-0 at Nakivubo Stadium in 1981.
l Scored a goal for Nile against Al Ahly of Egypt in 1981.
l Played for Cranes during 1983 and 1984 Cecafa Senior Challenge Cups.
l Was a penalty specialist at both club and national level.
l Was in the Coffee team that finished as league runners up to SC Villa in 1990.
l Played as a goalie, defender and striker during his career.
l Coached and promoted many clubs to the Ugandan Premier League.
l Played and coached his Mbogo (buffalo) clan in Buganda clan tourneys.

RASHID MUDIN
Rashid Mukungu Mudin is among the unsung heroes or call them reserves of the 1978 Uganda Cranes team that reached the Africa Cup of Nations final, losing to hosts Ghana.
He is in the same category as Jimmy Muguwa, Moses Ssentamu, Meddie Lubega, Hussein Matovu, Jamil Kasirye and Mike Diku.
According to veteran journalist Hassan Badru Zziwa, Mudin first approached his childhood club of KCCA in early 70s seeking to be signed.
He was just 16 and not to disappoint him, coach Jaberi Bidandi Ssali turned him into a ball boy at Lugogo until 1974.

Mudin’s debut match at KCCA came in 1976 against Prisons when he partnered with Jimmy Kirunda in central defence while Tom Lwanga was given the defensive midfielder role.
“In late 70s, we went with him for continental matches in Somalia and Nigeria where he played the sweeper’s role against Horseed of Somalia and later Enugu Rangers of Nigeria,” Sam Mugambe, Mudin’s ex-teammate at KCCA, recalls. 
“When we played Enugu Rangers away in Nigeria in the African Cup of Champion Clubs, Rashid got injured and newcomer John Latigo replaced him at number five,” Mugambe explains. 

Mudin first took over the sweeper’s role at KCCA in 1978 when the club had a shortage of strikers, something that led to switching defender Kirunda to the front. Kirunda became top scorer with 32 goals. 
With Kirunda now playing as a forward, Mudin replaced him at number five and build a good partnership with Tom Lwanga in the KCCA defence.
Mudin was so versatile in the KCCA defence of 1978 that broke the ice by becoming Uganda’s first club to win the Cecafa Club Championship.

Being a Nubian by tribe, Mudin briefly fled to exile in Kenya after the fall of Idi Amin’s government in 1979 and only returned when things had calmed down to play for UCB which had also offered him a job.
He was in the UCB team that won the league in 1979 and the same year went to the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup. 
Former UCB coach Kurtson “Big Ben” Omoding said that it was him that in 1979 approached KCCA and requested to take Mudin on loan.

“Time came when KCCA had so many talented young boys but who were not given enough playing time due to the presence of many established stars. I approached my friend Bidandi Ssali and told him not to kill Mudin’s talent but instead let him play for UCB and he accepted,” Omoding reveals.
According to Omoding, Mudin’s main advantage was his height.  “Mudin used his height to protect goalkeepers and during corners opposing strikers could hardly get chances of heading the ball,” he says.
Mudin returned to KCCA in 1981 winning the league for the third time after 1976 and 1977. He quit football in 1982 to embark on sports journalism.

He wrote for the-then weekly Soccer World magazine from where he joined Daily Monitor as sports editor.
He died on June 8, 1998 in a Karamoja Cannonball rally accident with a journalism colleague Richard Tebere.
Mudin left behind a son, Rashid Mukungu Mohammed, who is now at Villa. “Whenever I see his 1978 Afcon medal, I feel inspired,” the son says.
“I promised myself that even though my dad was a legend, I have to take my own footsteps, write my own history and not being someone because of being Mudin’s son.”

MUDIN FACTFILE
ACHIEVEMENTS
l Played for KCCA and UCB.
l First joined KCCA during the early 70s as a ball boy at 16.
l Won the league with KCCA in 1976, 1977 and 1981.
l Won the league with UCB in 1979.
l Won Uganda Cup with KCCA in 1983.
l Won the 1978 Cecafa Clubs Championship title with KCCA.
l Was part of the Cranes team that went to the Afcon of 1978 in Ghana.
l Was part of the Cranes team that participated in the 1979 Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup.
l After retiring in 1982, he turned to sports journalism and was Daily Monitor Sports Editor at the time of his death.

MARTIN OCHAGA
Ochaga was such a dependable sweeper but was unfortunate to play in the same generation as Uganda Cranes stalwarts Jimmy Kirunda and Tom Lwanga.
He was trendsetter right from his high school days at Nyakasura School in Fort Portal where he was a pillar in the school team.
From Nyakasura, he came to Kampala where he briefly played for Nsambya FC before his father approached Kurtson ‘Big Ben’ Omoding requesting that Ochaga sign for UCB.
The club had also signed Dan Lutalo and Edward Baguma who came from Coffee. 

Omoding says that Ochaga was one of the very few Ugandan footballers of the 80s that would effectively be able to direct the ball where they wanted. “He played with calmness. He was decisive, purposeful and was never someone that had a lot of wolokoso (unnecessary talk),” Omoding says in praise Ochaga.
Adding that; “He was a polished player who played the type of football that people wanted and not the one he himself wanted, a good game reader which forced him to make him the club captain.”

Omoding tells a story of what happened when he returned from a coaching course in Germany.
“Ochaga was one of those UCB players I ordered to discard the British soccer system of marking positions rather than people,” his former coach notes. 
“Ochaga would keep the ball to himself and not necessarily kick it upfront and this gave opponents a lot of headache to the point of being totally disorganized.” 
In fact, in order to life the players’ self-assurance, Omoding compelled President Idi Amin to invite Brazil legend Pele so that Ugandan players would get to see that he wasn’t special. 
“I want them to know that he had two eyes, two ears and two legs just like them so that they may be inspired to play like he used to,” he reminisces of Pele’s 1976 visit to Kampala.
It’s the self-confidence derived from this that drove UCB to the 1979 league title. They surprised everyone and in doing so, Ochaga, Lutalo, Fred Ssekandi, Patrick Kigongo, Nafas Ouma, David Mugerwa, Fred Sserwada, Vincent Khisa. Jimmy Bbosa Snr. Holmes Mulindwa, Fred Musisi, Edward Kaziba, Francis Kachope and Edward Baguma became household names. 

Earlier in 1978, Ochaga had been part of the formidable UCB team that featured in the national league and ending up being the only club that managed to defeat eventual champions Simba.
That year, he guided UCB to the final of the Uganda Cup, losing to Nsambya. 
They got to the final again in 1981, only to lose to Coffee.

Thereafter, Ochaga left UCB for Coffee where he partnered with George Sserunjogi and Richard Makumbi to form a formidable defence line. 
His departure was followed by mass exodus that saw Musisi (KCCA), Lutalo and Fred Sserwadda (SC Villa), Mike Alere (Nytil), Francis Kachope (Uganda Airlines) and Daktali Jalobo (Nile FC) leave too. Ochaga also played for ATM FC of Kenya.