Kiboijana challenges Kayangwe in rugby polls

The Uganda Rugby Union (URU) heads to the polls this Sunday, April 23.

This will provide the incumbent president Godwin Kayangwe with an opportunity to be audited on whether his last four years in power, since 2019, have delivered for the greater good of rugby in the country.

Phillip Kiboijana has presented himself as the required alternative to Kayangwe. However, the question that is abounding, beyond just the personalities of Kayangwe and Kiboijana, is: Who is the right kind of leader that rugby needs to effect the transformation of the sport?

According to Kayangwe, the glue that holds everything together in rugby is money.

“At the time I took office, we adopted a strategic plan focusing on the growth of the sport in terms of being more competitive internationally. But we also sought to foster empowerment, where our regional associations attained the capacity to develop rugby from the grassroots while URU provided oversight. But all this has needed logistics and resources,” Kayangwe said.

Indeed, the regional bodies have been awakened, and Kayangwe believes that it is against that fact that teams like the Jinja Hippos and the Walukuba Barbarians from the East can now challenge those from the Central region.

That said, regional growth is not the success story for many to boast about, especially when one considers that when Kayangwe became president, his administration promised to ensure that in terms of growth, the country realized at least 100,000 new rugby players.

In light of that, Kayangwe admits that there have been shortcomings. But he insisted that the two years of the Covid-19 pandemic had set them aback. He pointed out that the scouting of new talent had to be done through the school’s sports programs, which were destabilized by the lockdown.

In addition, Kayangwe said that all those activities upon which the overall development of rugby is based depend on money. His administration signed a mega Shs 9 billion deal with Nile Special to sponsor different rugby products, although this came after the lockdown.

To Kayangwe’s credit, he has been able to increase the overall number of underage rugby activities. In fact, even the URU budget widened from under a billion shillings to Shs 3.4 billion. Yet, his critics feel that the women’s game has been given backwater treatment.

The top-flight women’s league has only four teams and therefore plays very little rugby, which is counterproductive to their growth and general popularity. John Torach, a rugby commentator, feels that overall, even with what seems to be activity in rugby, the game is not growing.

The sport needs a leader that is transformative, not just one who does the usual things already done by those who have come and gone.

“A visionary is what the sport needs now—someone who comes in and inspires a paradigm shift in thinking. The mindset should be about professionalizing the sport and laying fundamental strategies that awaken the clubs to what they need to do to find corporate sponsors and partners in terms of their overall organization and governance structure,” Torach said.

In Torach’s view, the game is not simply about having players on the field and winning games. But laying the groundwork for sustainability and a work plan on how to reach the high echelons of the sport.

At this time, the top-flight league still has teams that cannot afford a full uniform. Referees are so few, yet they also do not have distinguished uniforms, on top of the fact that their pay is low.

The communications department of URU still remains inefficient, something Kayangwe agreed had to be improved. But acknowledging a shortcoming is one thing; going out to eliminate it is another. Maybe Kiboijana is the person to do it. He said,

“I do not dispute the fact that Kayangwe has done some good things for rugby; we should be at a higher level.”

Some observers view Kiboijana as an individual on the outside who has so many ideals. But when he gets there, reality sets in: the transformational job is not simple. But Kiboijana disagrees with those who consider him an outsider.

He said: “I have been part of the Kyadondo rugby club management for some time and have laid programs that have made it a success story.”

He added that rugby’s success will depend on proper accountability.

“Given the mandate, I will set up quarterly reports on everything we have set out to do and report back to the fraternity on what has been achieved and what remains.”

Kiboijana believes this will give URU the opportunity to spell out the blockades on the way so that, as a team, solutions are found bit by bit, as opposed to letting problems and inefficiency persist. Weak governance is what kills a good dream!

jovi@observer.ug