WHY BUNYORO'S KITARA IS IN THE DRIVING SEAT

You could hardly see a yellow T-shirt in the stands when KCCA took on Kitara on Friday.

The red and white jerseys dwarfed the home fans’ shirts at MTN Omondi Stadium, Lugogo during Kitara’s historic 1-0 victory over KCCA FC in the Uganda Premier League.

The trip was worth it after Denis Omedi’s only goal awarded the travelling visitors something to celebrate.

When it comes to passion, Kitara fans are unmatched. This is one of the things that have made the Hoima-based club special this season.

It is rare to have a team promoted to the topflight and immediately clicks like how Kitara has done. Their head coach Brian Ssenyondo and the top management led by club president Deo Kasozi have made sure that the side becomes a force to reckon with and this has been evidenced by the big victories registered against SC Villa, Express, and KCCA.

During their first stint (2020/2021) in the league, the club did not live up to expectation and were relegated to the FUFA Big League. However, what they have done this time around has caught the attention of many.

It is not easy to find a team that is new in the topflight beating all traditional big clubs but “The Royals” Kitara have done it.

Kitara defenders vie for the ball with a KCCA striker

Kasozi, who took over from Godfrey Bamwenda to restore the club’s sanity, revealed that they did not want to repeat the mistakes that saw them relegated.

“When we won the FUFA Big League we set tough targets. We did not want to be close to what happened to us in our first season in the league, so we decided to aim at fi nishing in the best fi ve positions. Of course for a team that is new in the league we knew many could term this as impossible but we decided to prepare for it early. We decided to bring good players and a technical team that will help us achieve this,” noted Kasozi.

In their debut in the topfl ight, one of things that saw them collapse was failure to meet remunerations of players and this is an area the management has worked upon so well this season.

“When it comes to motivation and support towards players and the technical team we looked at it as a priority. Apart from paying the players in time, among other incentives, we should be among the five teams in terms of paying the
best winning bonuses. We give players breakfast, lunch and supper.

“Even players who previously struggled to adjust to the environment, we have helped them settle in,” he added.

It is reported that they offer not less than sh300,000 as winning bonus but this has gone up to between sh400,000 to 500,000 whenever they pick victories against top sides.

Kitara’s success is not by mistake since they currently have the best striking force in the league and it is not surprising that they have scored the most goals (33) so far this season. Omedi leads the scoring chart with nine goals followed by Jude Ssemugabi and Paul Mucureezi with five goals each.

Kitara defenders vie for the ball with a KCCA striker

Many have compared Kitara to Onduparaka that also had the same vibe but after seven years they are now back in the FUFA Big League.

Kasozi believes that given the fact the club is community-founded, this will contribute to their progress and initiatives like revealing gate collections have helped them to grow.

“The idea of declaring gate collections after our home games was to provide confidence to the fans. The fans do not ask how you have utilised the money since they know the budget of the club is big. We want them to be part of this,” he reasoned.

To show that they do not want to follow the same mistakes, Onduparka did, they have introduced three categories of their members and fans. Executive members who will be 65 in number are expected to pay sh6m annually while level one members who will be 600 fans will pay sh650,000.

Then level two members who will be 3000 fans will part with sh150,000 annually.

If this is put into consideration, Kitara will be assured of at least sh1b before the season starts.

Expectations are high among many fans that they may become the first team from outside Kampala and Buganda to win the league in 44 years. But Kasozi and coach Ssenyondo do not want to rush and it is the reason
they insist that their target is a top-five finish.

Defunct Nile FC was the last team from outside central Uganda to win the league in 1980.