SPECIAL REPORT: THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE POWER OF SPORT
THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES: UGANDA’S PARLIAMENTARY ENGAGEMENT IN SPORT Sport, bringing people together. Uganda will next month field one of its biggest teams at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, having secured commitment from the Government of Uganda for its financial support. During a sitting of the Parliament of Uganda on 3 May 2022, the Minister of State for Sports, Hon. Hamson Obua, told Members that “I want to state on record that funding to the sport subsector of the Republic of Uganda relies entirely on funding from the Government… the country is organising to participate.” The 54 countries of the Commonwealth work towards shared goals of prosperity, democracy, human rights protection, peace, good governance and other tenets. Uganda first appeared at the Commonwealth Games in 1954, almost ten years before the country’s independence in 1962 when it joined the Commonwealth as an independent country. The July 2022 event will be the fifteenth time that Uganda fields athletes at the Games, a period in which the country has collected 53 medals including over a dozen gold. The East African country has also hosted various international meetings of the Commonwealth over the years including the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November 2007. Queen Elizabeth II, the Head of the Commonwealth, together with Prince Phillip and Prince Charles were in Kampala on that occasion. Even when the country was suspended from the Commonwealth over human rights abuses in the 1970s, Uganda continued to field teams at the Commonwealth Games, standing out in boxing and athletics. Participating in the Commonwealth Games and indeed other international sporting events brings immense benefits to individual athletes, teams and countries. It helps forge unity, leads to peace and keeps youth busy and engaged. Sport and participating in international sporting events helps athletes and countries build long term relations. Amateur athletes
“Participating in the Commonwealth
Games and indeed other international sporting events brings immense benefits to individual athletes, teams and countries. It helps forge unity, leads to peace and keeps youth busy and engaged.
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participating at the Commonwealth have met, trained and competed against top level athletes and later, riding on their performance gone ahead to turn professional and have had a huge impact in their communities. Badru Hassan Zziwa, a sports journalist of over 30 years’ experience, says Uganda’s athletes Stephen Kiprotich and Joshua Cheptegei could probably not have won gold at the Olympics if they had not started their journey in other events including the Commonwealth Games. “After excelling in the Commonwealth Games, boxers like Ayub Kalule (gold, Christchurch, 1974) and Mustafa Wasajja (gold, All Africa Boxing Championship, Kampala; 1975, Berlin Invitational Boxing Championship) turned professional,” said Zziwa. Zziwa adds that some of these people are very rich, getting a government salary and contributing to their communities. Cheptegei, the current 5,000 metre Olympics champion, is currently building a high altitude training centre in his home area in Bukwo, in eastern part of the country. Here, he employs and contributes to the community. “This comes with several professionals including coaches, physiotherapists, nutritionists,” said Dr Ronald Rukare, the President of the Uganda Olympics Committee (UOC). The UOC is also charged with the Commonwealth Games in the country. Politics and Sports In Uganda, two boxing Commonwealth champions joined politics several years after the games. One of them, Godfrey Nyakana, who won gold in Auckland in 1990, held a top-level position at the local level of politics in the city of Kampala. Although not successful, Justin Jjuuko another Auckland boxing champion stood for elective politics in another area in the Central Region of the country. Uganda had the following medals at its last outing at the Commonwealth Games held in Gold Coast in 2018: Cheptegei (gold, 5,000m/10,000m); Stella Chesang (gold, 10,000m); Solomon Munyo (silver, marathon); Mercyline Chelangat (bronze, 10,000m) and Mr Juma Miiro (bronze, boxing). Dorcus Inzikuru and Boniface Kiprop (Melbourne), Moses Kipsiro (Delhi and Glasgow) won gold and upon return to the country attracted huge crowds as they drove from the international airport to the city centre of Kampala before being hosted at the Parliament of Uganda where motions were moved to recognise their achievements. This has now become a practice. In the motions held in Parliament, usually moved by the Minister in charge of Sports, Members of Parliament collectively congratulate the medalists together with the entire team fielded at the event.
Katamba Mohammed is the Principal Information Officer at the Parliament of Uganda. The Parliamentarian | 2022: Issue Two | 100 years of publishing | 135