To every player hoping to lace up their boots at Kyadondo for the next few weeks, this letter is for you.
You have been failed.
Right now, Kyadondo is a swamp. Well, it has always been. The monicker, Swampunu, by the vile Twitterati was so apt. Kampala’s rains have turned the pitch into a muddy, waterlogged field where every tackle, every sprint and every scrum carries a risk that no athlete should have to accept. You are training and competing on a surface that increases your exposure to serious injury every single time you show up. Sadly, you keep showing up, because you love this game.
But love for the game is not reason enough for you to put your body on the line without protection.
Here is what those at the top understand but will never say to your face. Without you, there is no game. Without you, there are no crowds. Without you, there is no bar revenue, no sponsorship, no spectacle, no Uganda Rugby Union press release celebrating another match day. I might have gotten ahead of myself there with the bar revenue but you get the point. You are not a luxury in this sport. You are the product. You are the biggest resource Ugandan rugby has. The pitch, the jerseys, the trophies and the brand mean absolutely nothing without the people willing to bleed for them. That is you.
And yet you are playing on a waterlogged, unsafe pitch with almost no insurance and next to nothing in your pockets.
Uganda rugby is amateur, but you are expected to perform like professional athletes. You are representing clubs that host crowds, generate revenue from bar sales and events, and puts on spectacles that fans, families and sponsors enjoy every weekend. And yet, when the rain falls and the ground turns dangerous, no one from the top is out there with you in the mud. They are not the ones who will limp home with a twisted knee or a fractured ankle. You are.
You play with almost no insurance. If you are seriously injured on that pitch today;
what happens tomorrow?
Who pays your hospital bill?
Who covers your income while you recover?
Who compensates your family if the worst happens?
Read your history about injuries and the Uganda Rugby Union. The answers you will draw to these questions should wake you up.
To the Uganda Rugby Union, the National Council of Sports and the relevant government bodies, you should know that these players are not volunteers putting on a school play. They are athletes who represent Uganda. They attract crowds. They develop the next generation through academies. They build community. They deserve a safe training and match environment. They deserve mandatory health and accident insurance. They deserve fair compensation for their time and physical sacrifice.
To the fans and supporters, when you pack the grounds every game day and cheer these players on, your voice should carry weight. Use it. Ask questions publicly. Demand better. Hold the clubs and the union accountable. Your loyalty to this sport should include loyalty to the people who make it worth watching.
To the players directly, you have more power than you think. And most of you have not used even a fraction of it. It is appalling Ivan Magomu is going to war alone. But then again, that is the Lion Order, frontline commander.
You are allowed to organise. You are allowed to speak. You are allowed to say, “We will not play on this pitch until it is safe.” You are allowed to say, “We will not wear this jersey until we have insurance.” No administrator, no sponsor and no governing body in Ugandan rugby gets to do their job if you decide, collectively, that today you are not playing. You have been granted roles in boardrooms that make decisions. Let this not be an avenue to collect brown envelopes and return to swallowing whatever it is that collects at Kyadondo whenever it rains.
No club crest is worth your life. No match is worth a career-ending injury on a pitch that should never have been passed as fit for play.
The ground needs urgent drainage and maintenance. You need accident and health insurance before you step onto that field again. You need transparent conversations about compensation. These are basic standards that every athlete in a functioning sports system takes for granted.
You are the reason people come to Kyadondo. You are the reason Uganda has a rugby story worth telling. The institutions around you exist because of you, not the other way around.
