World War: Babirye Kityo Squeezes Ogwel’s ‘Balls’ again, Vows to Resign if Found Guilty of Her Accusations

The war between sports federations and National Council of Sports boss, Dr. Patrick Bernard Ogwel seems not ending soon but fueled every moment by facts tabled before the media.

But the logheads are more between Uganda Netball Federation president Hon. Sarah Babirye Kityo and the NCS general secretary Dr. Ogwel who (both) decided to go bear knackle against each other especially from the start of this month (February) 2023.

Like she did before the Parliamentary Adhoc committee put in place to check the operations of National Council, different media interviews, Kityo continued to accuse Ogwel of asking the federation to account for monies they didn’t receive.

In the state of the netball address she held on Monday at the re-opened offices at Aga Khan Building Old Kampala, Babirye frankly asserted that she is ready to resign if she is found guilty of what she has been accusing Dr. Ogwel.

One of the issues Dr. Ogwel highlighted in the press conference he held at Cupper Chimney Restaurant at Lugogo on Wednesday 1st February, Ogwel said that the trip to Nambia was fully funded by Namibian government but UNF went ahead and made a budget for that trip, this didn’t get well with Babirye and she has challenged Ogwel to table to letter from Nambia that was saying that to trip was fully funded like he states, and went ahead and said if that evidence is tabled, she is ready to apologize to the country and immediately resign.

“…..the issue of accountability is very simple, let government identify any officials, IGG would send someone, CID would send someone to Namibia and ask, is it true that the Namibian government fully funded the tournament?, That would sum up every, if they got to Nambia, and they get a mail and say that everything was fully funded, I would resign today and apologize to the government.” She vowed.

Again in his address, Ogwel accused Uganda Netball Federation of not submitting a proper accountability of 425m shillings and revealed that, it’s the reason that Netball has never received any funding from the government in this financial year which is in it’s third quarter. However Babirye nullified his claims and tabled a bank statement to media and the original copy of a letter received from NCS signed by Ogwel asking her to account for the 425m and yet Netball received 186m shillings.

“On 9th December,2021 Dr. Ogwel wrote to me requesting for an accountability of 425,014,000/- to be submitted in a period of four days, yet UNF had submitted earlier and on time an accountability of 186,374,110/- that was disbursed to the UNF bank account and I have the bank statement to which you are going with today.” She stated.

“Basing on Dr. Ogwel’s letter, the queries were; that 288,262,220/- was not accounted by unf and yet the said money was not received by UNF.”

Dr. Ogwel asks for kickbacks:

Babirye again accused Dr. Ogwel for asking for kickbacks and the reason as to why Netball no longer receive money, it’s because they refused to give Dr. Ogwel kickback of 40% on the 100M they received for Male’s Netball Championship held in South Africa in 2021.

“It is evident that Dr. Ogwel asks for kickbacks, I will not talk for other federations, let me speak of mine.” She started.

“The time we were going to South Africa that’s where all the saga it was started, he sent to former members of the executive, that’s Amina Mande, Mr. Muhumuza Richard and Hajjati Aida Nambuusi, they told us that Dr. Ogwel had said that out of 100M, he wanted a kickback of 40, almost 50%, I said this to the CID, in the national council of sports, if they are genuine let them table the minutes of the meetings we had, the chairman [Ambrose Tashobya] told you that we had over nine meetings, in all the nine meetings I said this, I again said this when we were with Hon. Minister for Sports, so when Dr. Ogwel asked for the 40, we said that we don’t have that money because we have already budgeted for it.”

“When we returned, [Amina Mande and Muhumuza] told me that the players’ allowance of 30m was given to Dr. Ogwel as kickback.” Babirye pins Ogwel.

Babirye continues to say that she wrote to Dr. Ogwel seeking for guidance about the 30M, she says that she is challenging Dr. Ogwel to produce a police reference number that shows that he went to Police about the Issue of defamation as he claims.

In all this saga, president advised that let Dr. Ogwel step aside and investigations against him go on and if he is found guilty, let him go for all.

World Cup preparations:

In the same press briefing, Babirye asserted that Uganda stand a risk of not featuring in 2023 Netball World cup because of the fine slapped to Uganda by World Netball for not participating in World cup qualifiers held in south Africa. The fine is of £5000 which is equivalent to ughs. 22m.

As Per the 2022 World Netball General Regulations, on failure to fulfill fixtures, the association has to pay fines before it’s eligible to play again!

And the rules say:

On the instance of a First Withdrawal

1.1 The NA which has withdrawn shall:

1.1.1 be deemed to have lost the fixture and any world ranking points shall be awarded accordingly. The NA will be placed last if it was a competition from which the NA withdrew. The NA will also be fined up to GBP £5,000, as determined by the WN Board (or any sub-group which they may appoint); and, in addition, shall

1.1.2 pay all reasonable quantifiable financial losses incurred by the NA of the non-defaulting team or Organising Committee (OC). Proof of such losses shall be accompanied by a certificate of verification from the auditor of that NA.

1.2 Until full payment of all fines have been received by WN and losses have been received by the NA /OC, the defaulting NA shall not be eligible to participate in or host any international competition or play any international match at any level, unless agreed otherwise by the WN Board.

“We have informed NCS, we wrote to them and copied the Minister but also allow me inform you that Hon Peter Ogwang gave me hope that Government will pay the fine and gave us assurance that we should start the training,” Babirye said.

“He (Ogwang) went ahead to ask to me submit the invoice and as UNF, we are ready to start preparations for the World Cup.”

“For failing to take part in those qualifiers last year, we dropped rankings from Sixth to Seventh, and I think it’s important for the public to know (because She Cranes is a National team and therefore for everyone) so that in case of anything, they are well aware of who failed Netball in Uganda.”

The Netball Federation had lined up three friendlies including a trip to Barbados to fine tune the She Cranes for the World Cup.

Zimbabwe and Scotland are both scheduled to jet in the country for friendlies as well.

“But the She Cranes can’t play with them because these are ranking matches, unless we have cleared the fine.

“But as a Federation, we are willing to go an extra mile, we may go for a fundraiser if the Government funding doesn’t come through.”

This comes amidst tension between NCS and Netball Federation over issues of accountability.

“We are here to serve, our term of office is still on. Whether Bernard Ogwel (NCS) refuses to fund us or not we are to serve,” Babirye added.

“This whole financial year we have not received any penny from NCS but we managed to go to Wales, Northern Ireland, England and New Zealand with zero funding from them. This means that there are other Ugandans who are willing to sponsor us, so we shall go back to them and those companies who feel we have a right to play and live Ogwel with his funds since he has chosen to work with some Federations.”

At the World Cup, the She Cranes are in pool D alongside World Number Two New Zealand, the 1979 champion and world number 11 the Calypso girls of Trindad & Tobago together with lowly seeded Singapore.