John Mutenda, a calming presence KCCA will miss 

The death of John Mutenda on April 26 was a sad moment for the Ugandan sports fraternity. There is hardly any sports administrator I can compare to him when it comes to compassion and patience.

Always charming, Mutenda was a calming presence at KCCA FC, Fufa and in motorsport. In his more than four decades of sports administration, Mutenda always avoided controversy and was always the peacemaker when tempers hit the roof.

Born June 26, 1949, Mutenda dedicated a great deal of his life to sports, using his deep pockets and state connections to move things. My first interaction with him was in the 1970s as a KCC supporter. What made him stand out was that he was smartly dressed.

At Nakivubo stadium, he had a permanent seat on the far right corner of the pavilion’s first row. When the club went to polls in 1982, I was one of the fans who rallied be- hind Mutenda, but he narrowly missed out on a seat on the executive.

He took the setback in stride, and by the mid-eighties, Mutenda had established himself as a top Kampala businessman through his Jinja road-based Station Motors, which sold brand new Land Rovers. He would in turn become one of the key financiers of KCC, despite not being a member of the club’s executive.

In 1987, KCC found itself in a crisis after posting poor results, as fans demanded an explanation from the executive. When the no-nonsense club chairman Jack Ibaale went on to describe irate fans as lumpens, tensions went through the roof, but it was Mutenda who calmed the situation.

He arranged a meeting of the two sides at Lugogo, at which club head coach Moses Nsereko agreed to step down on top of having the executive apologize to fans.

JOINING THE EXECUTIVE

That was a masterstroke that paved the way for Mutenda’s election to the club executive as a committee member in the February, 1987 club polls.

Ibaale retained the chairmanship and had Chris Rwanika and Steven Mukasa as vice chairmen. Bidandi Ssali was elected treasurer, while Joe Sebugwawo took over as secretary. Other committee members included Shimex Yiga, Suzan Okello, Hassan Biruma, Moses Nsereko, and Patrick Kitaka.

In December, 1993, Mutenda was appointed vice chairman under the chairmanship of Abraham Byandala and since then remained an ever-present figure on the executive, apart from the tenures of Dr Hashib Kabuye Takuba and later Michael Okua’s executives. It was because of his longevity that the club awarded him the title of `Life Chairman’.

AAU LEADERSHIP

Mutenda extended his love for sport to motorsport. He was among the pioneers of a local rally body, the Automobile Association of Uganda (AAU), in the late seventies.

He joined hands with Kampala business elites to start AUU; these include Sir Gordon Wavamunno, John Ssenseko Kulubya, Sam Ssali, Roger Ddungu, Rabbi Ezekel Mulondo, Karim Hirji, Felix Odongkara and Francis Bagonza, among others.

Through AAU, Uganda managed to secure recognition from the international motorsport body, the FIA, and started implementing FIA rules during rally competitions. The body was headed by Kulubya, with Mulondo as its patron.

Later in the nineties, AAU’s over-bearing influence stirred up conflicts in the local motorsport fraternity, with local clubs questioning why they had to subscribe to a body that was handling other businesses besides sports.

By 1999, AAU, under the leadership of Ddungu, met strong opposition from local clubs like Mosac, UMC and Umospoc, among others, after they formed a new umbrella Federation of Motorsport Clubs of Uganda (FMU). The tensions reached fever pitch and a breakaway became inevitable.

When Mutenda got elected AAU president in 2001, he got the two warring parties to sit down and offered FMU its wish to manage the sporting side. That proved yet another milestone in ending the impasse.

Meanwhile, Mutenda was also a Rotarian, and until his death, he was the president of the Kampala Central rotary club. Such a rare jolly good fellow. Rest in power, Big John!