Three A long time of Management, Little Institutional Progress
Sam Mahaba Muwonge, president of Uganda Biking Affiliation | Credit score: David Isabirye
Sam Muwonge, popularly often known as Mahaba, has been a central determine in Ugandan biking administration since 1990.
He has served as president of UCA in two separate spells, first between 1990 and 2000 earlier than returning to the place in 2010, a tenure that continues to the current day.
Throughout these intervals, his management has remained intently related to the game’s administration. Nevertheless, greater than 20 years of cumulative involvement have didn’t translate into the institutional progress anticipated of a nationwide governing physique.
The query is now not merely how lengthy the present management has been in cost, however what it has constructed throughout that point.
Uganda has managed simply 11 continental medals over the interval, a modest return for a rustic with a substantial pool of biking expertise.
5 of these medals have come by Charles Kagimu, arguably the nation’s most completed street bicycle owner lately.
Kagimu gained the person time trial on the 2023 African Video games, adopted by continental particular person time trial titles in 2023 and 2024. He additionally secured bronze within the 2024 African Street Biking Championships earlier than including one other bronze medal on the 2026 version.
Different Ugandan riders, together with Lawrence Lorot, Paul Lomuria, Paul Miiro and Miria Nantume, have additionally contributed to the nation’s continental medal tally, significantly within the junior and under-23 classes.
These achievements display that Uganda is just not wanting capability.
Reasonably, they elevate a extra uncomfortable query: why has the nation didn’t construct a sustainable system able to turning particular person expertise into constant worldwide success?
Kagimu’s Olympic Breakthrough, A System Left Behind
Maybe nothing illustrates the contradiction in Ugandan biking higher than Charles Kagimu’s look on the 2024 Olympic Video games in Paris.
His qualification ended a 40-year absence of Ugandan illustration in Olympic biking, marking a big second for the game.
It was an achievement that ought to have triggered renewed funding, stronger improvement buildings and a deliberate nationwide programme to make sure that Kagimu’s breakthrough turned the start of a brand new period.
As an alternative, the challenges dealing with the game have continued. Since 2016, Kagimu and a number of other different cyclists have reportedly shifted their private coaching bases from Uganda to Kenya, citing the dearth of satisfactory buildings and a conducive coaching surroundings again dwelling.
That improvement ought to fear each establishment accountable for sports activities improvement within the nation.
When a nation’s main cyclists should look past its borders to seek out the mandatory surroundings to coach and compete, it raises critical questions in regards to the effectiveness of the home system.
Uganda has younger riders throughout totally different areas with the potential to progress into elite competitors. Nevertheless, with out regional buildings, organised improvement programmes, common races and constant technical assist, that expertise stays largely untapped.
Some riders have deserted the game altogether, not essentially as a result of they lack capability, however as a result of there’s little institutional assist to maintain their ambitions.
Biking can not develop on particular person willpower alone. It requires an ecosystem.
And that ecosystem is exactly what Uganda seems to be lacking.
Past figuring out nationwide champions, such occasions present riders with alternatives to compete, display their skills and accumulate useful rating factors.
These factors can enhance their prospects of securing skilled alternatives and qualifying for main worldwide competitions, together with the World Championships and Olympic Video games.
Its absence subsequently represents rather more than a missed date on the sporting calendar.
It’s one other misplaced alternative for Ugandan cyclists to develop their careers.
Much more regarding is the obvious disappearance of standard home racing.
UCA has reportedly didn’t organise a single native race throughout the present interval, whereas a constant annual competitors calendar stays unavailable.
For a nationwide federation, organising competitions is amongst its most elementary tasks.
With out races, there isn’t a significant aggressive pathway. With out a pathway, younger riders have little incentive to stay within the sport. And with out sustained competitors, Uganda’s worldwide ambitions develop into more and more troublesome to realize.
The results are already being felt.
Allegations of Mismanagement and a Household-Run Affiliation
Past the competitors disaster, UCA’s management has additionally confronted allegations of economic impropriety, abuse of workplace and the operating of the affiliation as a household enterprise.
Sam Muwonge has been accused by sections of the biking fraternity of exercising extreme management over the affiliation, with questions additionally raised in regards to the involvement of relations in its day by day operations.
His son, Shawn Muwonge, is reported to have assumed vital accountability for the affiliation’s day-to-day actions.
That association has attracted additional scrutiny following allegations surrounding his conduct throughout the 2025 UCI Street World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda.
In response to claims raised by stakeholders, Shawn confronted disciplinary motion and a nice from the UCI over conduct mentioned to have introduced the game into disrepute, involving an incident with a lady described within the allegations as a intercourse employee.
The circumstances surrounding the reported disciplinary motion, together with the exact findings and sanction imposed, require affirmation by the related UCI data.
Nonetheless, the incident has added to considerations in regards to the requirements of administration and illustration anticipated of officers entrusted with managing Ugandan biking.
Questions have additionally been raised in regards to the dealing with of worldwide journey preparations involving Ugandan cyclists.
Visa Controversies Increase Human Trafficking Issues
Among the many most critical allegations in opposition to the UCA management are claims regarding the misuse of visas secured for worldwide biking occasions.
Stakeholders have alleged that throughout the 2023 UCI World Championships in Glasgow, Muwonge obtained visas supposed for cyclists however subsequently transferred or offered them to different people.
These claims elevate critical questions in regards to the goal for which the journey preparations had been secured and whether or not the people who finally travelled had been legitimately linked to the game.
Additional considerations have emerged over a visa software involving one Emmanuel Kityo, whose participation in Ugandan biking is reportedly unknown to a number of members of the native biking group.
In response to the knowledge offered by stakeholders, UCA sought a visa for Kityo to attend the Cannondale Malverns Pageant 2026 in the UK, regardless of questions on his connection to the game and the relevance of the occasion to Uganda’s biking programme.
The appliance reportedly attracted scrutiny from the British authorities, with Kityo subsequently denied entry.
These incidents have been cited by complainants as a part of a wider sample of alleged irregularities involving worldwide journey and using the affiliation’s official standing.
Some stakeholders have characterised the alleged conduct as human trafficking-related exercise.
Such a critical accusation requires proof from immigration data, official investigations or legislation enforcement findings. It shouldn’t be handled as a longtime felony discovering with out such verification.
Nevertheless, the questions surrounding the affiliation’s dealing with of worldwide illustration are critical sufficient to warrant an impartial investigation.
Who approves the people representing Uganda at worldwide biking occasions? What standards are used to pick them? And what accountability mechanisms exist to make sure that visas and different journey paperwork secured within the title of the game are used for his or her supposed goal?
These are questions that UCA and the related authorities ought to be ready to reply.
The Authorities’s Silence Is Changing into A part of the Downside
Maybe essentially the most irritating facet of Uganda’s biking disaster is that the considerations aren’t totally new.
Totally different stakeholders have reportedly submitted formal complaints and appeals to the Nationwide Council of Sports activities (NCS) and the Ministry of Training and Sports activities through the years, searching for intervention and accountability inside the affiliation.
But, regardless of these efforts, the issues seem to have persevered.
The absence of decisive intervention has left the impression that the game’s governing physique can proceed working with out significant penalties, at the same time as its home buildings deteriorate.
The state of affairs has develop into much more difficult following the implementation of the Nationwide Sports activities Act, Cap. 151, and the Nationwide Sports activities Rules, 2025.
Below the brand new regulatory framework, nationwide sports activities organisations should fulfill registration and compliance necessities to qualify for presidency funding administered by the NCS, starting within the 2026/2027 monetary yr.
UCA has reportedly didn’t fulfil the mandatory necessities. That presents one other vital problem for an affiliation already struggling to maintain the game’s actions.
With out entry to authorities funding, the monetary strain on an already fragile biking construction might develop into even higher.
Nevertheless, the difficulty extends past whether or not UCA qualifies for public funding.
The NCS has a accountability to make sure that nationwide sports activities organisations function inside the legislation, preserve correct governance buildings and stay accountable to their athletes and stakeholders.
The Ministry of Training and Sports activities additionally has a accountability to make sure that sports activities improvement doesn’t develop into a casualty of administrative disputes and extended institutional failure.
If complaints have repeatedly reached the related workplaces, why has the state of affairs remained unresolved?
Have the allegations been investigated? Have compliance assessments been carried out? Has UCA been given directives to deal with its governance shortcomings? And, if violations have been established, what motion has been taken?
Ugandan biking deserves solutions.
A Sport Working Out of Time
The warning indicators are troublesome to disregard. There aren’t any functioning regional improvement buildings able to systematically figuring out and nurturing expertise. A constant nationwide competitors calendar is lacking. The Nationwide Championships haven’t been organised. The nation lacks a clearly functioning nationwide workforce programme, whereas a few of its main riders have been pressured to hunt higher coaching environments exterior Uganda.
On the identical time, the affiliation continues to face questions over management, governance, accountability and its dealing with of worldwide illustration.
For a sport that has already demonstrated its capability to provide Olympic representatives and continental medallists, it is a deeply troubling state of affairs.
Uganda doesn’t want one other decade of management disputes. It wants an affiliation that may organise races, develop younger riders, assist elite athletes, set up regional buildings and signify the nation with integrity.
It wants clear elections, accountable administration, a reputable improvement programme and a correctly funded nationwide calendar.
Most significantly, it wants establishments keen to behave.
Charles Kagimu’s Olympic look in Paris ought to have marked the start of a brand new chapter for Ugandan biking. As an alternative, the game dangers dropping the very momentum that such an achievement ought to have generated.
The following era of cyclists can’t be anticipated to outlive on recollections of previous achievements, private sacrifice and occasional worldwide appearances.
Yearly with out organised competitors is one other yr of misplaced improvement. Each gifted rider who walks away is one other alternative wasted. And each unanswered grievance additional erodes confidence within the establishments entrusted with defending the game.
Uganda Biking Affiliation has inquiries to reply. However so do the Nationwide Council of Sports activities and the Ministry of Training and Sports activities.
How lengthy will the game be allowed to deteriorate earlier than somebody takes accountability?
What number of extra riders should abandon biking earlier than the authorities recognise the size of the disaster?
And the way for much longer will the nation’s biking fraternity be anticipated to stay silent?
Uganda biking is on life assist. The folks entrusted with saving it may possibly now not afford to look away.
