Kho Kho, the new sport taking root in Uganda

Every new beginning faces challenges, and it is not so different with a new sports discipline to gain growth and popularity immediately after introduction.

This is what Mustafa Nsubuga, the president of the Kho Kho Federation is trying to do, propagating the sport in the country.

After having taken the sport to Northern and Eastern Uganda, Nsubuga’s focus turned to Mbarara in Western Uganda where he was able to get 30 people who trained in the sport.

The 30 trained personnel including female and male youths were taken through the basics of the discipline over the three days of the training and Nsubuga believes they will help spread the sport.

“We are slowly but steadily taking root in the country and we hope in the next two years, we shall have gotten our sport spread all over Uganda,” Nsubuga said.

Nsubuga’s target is to grow the capacity of the discipline by acquiring several trained referees and players who will later help in spreading the game widely.

Participants play Kho Kho

“This is a good game, it is interesting that the traditional tap-play that we used to play while young is a modern sport,” said Annitah Nayebare, one of the trainees in Mbarara.

Nsubuga and Sharon Oroma were part of the group of Africans that underwent a month’s training in the game last year in India to help it spread in Africa.

How it is played

The game of Kho Kho is played by 12 players on each squad and the game has four quarters/innings with each quarter lasting 7 minutes.

Each side has 7 minutes to defend and also 7 minutes to pursue and of the 12 players, only 9 from each side take to the field at once.

There must be the defenders and attackers where the attackers ensure that they tap or touch the defender and then that's a score if successful and the roles of defenders and attackers are interchanged in every quarter or inning.

The Mbarara trainees received certificates

The chasing team scores points each time a defender is ruled out which happens either when a chaser tags or touches a defender without breaking any rule or when a defender steps out of court or when a defender is late to enter the court as part of a new batch.