How Dr Takuba navigated KCCA FC in tough times 

KCCA FC’s lack of silverware in the past three years is mounting pressure on the current club leadership headed by Martin Sekajja. KCCA currently leads the Uganda Premier League (UPL) standings, but some fans appear dissatisfied with the club’s performance.

This was evident when the club lost 0-1 to Bright Stars at Kavumba recreation ground on December 20, 2022. As I was leaving Wakiso, I observed a number of fans questioning the football credentials of Sekajja, who has steered the club since 2019.

Others criticized the club’s head coach Morley Byekwaso for poor tactics. The criticism of the club’s top leadership reminds me of the tumultuous early 2000s when Dr Hashib Kabuye Takuba was at the helm.

TAKUBA WHO?

For starters, Dr Takuba was appointed to run the club on January 5, 2003 to replace the late James Seggane, who was forced to resign due to a string of poor performances and fan pressure.

Seggane had taken over the club reins after the resignation of Abraham Byandala in 1999. Byandala, like Seggane, was pressurized to quit by irate fans who claimed that he had little time for the club. So, after three years without a major trophy, the fans stormed Lugogo and demanded Seggane’s resignation; they even stormed the pitch and forced the club’s training sessions to be cancelled.

They also petitioned Kampala mayor, the late John Ssebaana Kizito, who also doubled as club patron, to intervene in the matter. Others approached former coach Jaberi Bidandi Ssali to use his influence and end Ssegane’s leadership.

After receiving Seggane’s resignation on January 2, 2003, Ssebaana met the club’s fans’ executive and came up with Takuba’s name. But a section of fans had wanted Moses Kalungi, one of the club’s vice chairmen (during Seggane’s tenure), to be elevated for the top job, but the club’s constitution locked out non-KCCA staff from being elected for the club’s top office.

Dr Takuba was the deputy mayor of Kampala at the time of his appointment, and Ssebaana gave him a year to lead the interim committee in order to organize the club’s elections before the end of the year.

Takuba arrived at Lugogo when the club had last won the league title in 1997 and the Kakungulu Cup (Uganda Cup) title in 1993. Another challenge the medical doctor faced was poor funding from the parent institution (KCCA), which left players in arrears for months.

He also came at a time when the club had an exodus of top players like Morley Byekwaso, Richard Malinga, Saidi Abedi, Kefa Kisala, Willy Kyambadde, and Tom Muwonge to rival clubs.

The fans viewed the new boss as “too soft” to handle the “big-headed” players, and some claimed he was too much of a gentleman to manage a big club like KCCA. However, he tried his best, but the club needed a more assertive boss.

As if the fans had no faith in him, they once mocked him, asking, “Takuba who?” KCCA finished the season 17 points behind league leaders SC Villa, and the club was ejected from the Kakungulu Cup at the semi-final stage. However, on a positive note, Takuba signed former tactician Mike Mutebi as the club’s technical director. And after the departure of Danish coach Jan Fray, he appointed Mutebi as head coach.

TAKUBA TO KISEKKA

Takuba failed to handle the pressure, and when he passed the club’s mantle to Godfrey Kisekka without waiting for elections, it was enough to show that it was a sigh of relief. Kisekka was the club’s vice chairman technical when he was appointed chairman.

Kisekka was not new at Lugogo. He was a former player in the 1980s and also became a member of the club’s executive in 1987 before serving as team manager and vice chairman in 1997.

It did not take many by surprise when KCCA won the 2004 Uganda Cup. At the moment, like Takuba, Sekajja is yet to win a trophy at Lugogo since his arrival in 2019. But on a positive note, the soft-spoken boss is overseeing the construction of Phillip Omodi Stadium, something that might reduce pressure from the fans.

bzziwa@observer.ug