Sport, you can argue, is about the movement of pieces from one to another towards a common goal. Pieces are moving the game of Netball in Uganda, but you need help to understand what the goal is at this point.
The person entrusted to the game’s administration has spent the better part of the year in legal battles and TV appearances rather than game progressions.
Discussing the details of an ongoing court case outside the court can be sensitive. Sarah Babirye Kityo has been doing this since she was granted bail. The legality of such discussions can depend on various factors, including the nature of the case, the potential for such discussions to prejudice the case, and whether any legal restrictions, such as gag orders, are in place.
Or is it a case of running before one is chased?
In her barrage of defence of her actions, Mrs Kityo has taken to her X (formerly Twitter) to share what she believes is a witch hunt. She states that the National Council of Sports cancelled Uganda Netball Federation’s certificate of registration as retaliation to accountability calls that were going unanswered; also, the former prompted World Netball to withdraw recognition of the executive.
“NCS further wrote to World Netball to withdraw recognition of our executive, which they did. They had no right at all to do so according to the constitution that governs us,” said Mrs Kityo.
The statements from Kityo Sarah Babirye do not hold any water. After the wrangles that had been going on in the federation, World Netball, through Angela Sanderson, the Disciplinary Officer, wrote to Babirye Sarah Kityo in May 2023 after her arrest and also launched an investigation into her in connection with an allegation of obtaining money under false.
With no end in sight, the NCS resolved to withdraw the federation’s certificate of recognition, citing concerns about its governance. World Netball also suspended the UNF following the certificate removal and sought a quick resolution to the UNF fiasco with the appointment of a normalisation committee to oversee the activities.
The actions of suspension are not the doing of the NCS. Instead, the UNF forced NCS’s hand, and by extension, that of World Netball, to forcibly intervene and do a deep dive into the rot eating up the UNF and clean it up expeditiously.
There’s more to this UNF conundrum than meets the eye. The bodies, clearly, didn’t connive to withdraw the recognitions and the certificates. It is a case of hollow and shambolic governance and we shall get to the bottom of it.
