For the first time in 67 years, the national boxing team ‘The Bombers’ failed to qualify a single boxer for the Olympic games through the African qualifiers.

The bombers are part of the 36 African countries that failed to punch their way to next year’s Paris games in France via the Africa qualifiers.

A total of 42 countries vied for the 18 slots that were allocated to Africa this time.

This year’s Africa Olympic Boxing qualifiers were held in the Senegalese capital, Dakar between September 9th and 15th.

Uganda fielded six boxers including middleweight Shadir Musa Bwogi, Lightweight Joshua Tukamuhebwa, welterweight Isaac Zebra Ssenyange Jr., featherweight Jonathan Kyobe, flyweight Shafic Mawanda, and flyweight Grace Nankinga all have failed to beat the test.

Since the 1956 Australia games, Ugandan boxers have never failed to punch their way to the Olympic games through continental qualifiers.

And since this year’s qualification climaxed in Dakar, myriad questions have been raised regarding ‘The bombers’ dismal performance.

Many boxing stakeholders blamed the confusion that surrounded the team on the Uganda Olympics Committee (UOC), others fault the National Council of Sports (NCS) with the rest pinpointing the Uganda Boxing Federation (UBF) headed by Moses Muhangi. 

But for starters, who is to blame for all this mess?

Vision Sports provides insight into those responsible for the bomber’s poor show in Dakar.

UBF’s selection process

UBF’s hand towards the bomber’s dismal performance starts from the team’s selection process that only picks boxers piling their trade in the national league, the UBF Boxing Champions League.

And Fred Kavuma, Muhangi’s former vice-president in charge of administration, says the current national team selection process denies a chance to many talented boxers who boycotted the league.

“Muhangi must stop his foolery. He is responsible almost for everything. He dysfunctioned championship tournaments like the national open that used to groom our boxers in favor of his business-oriented champions league”. Kavuma says.

Adding that “Our boxers lacked competitiveness and sharpness. There is no way we could qualify” 

But Muhangi waters down Kavuma’s accusations.

“Only the blind can come out with such statements. The likes of Tukamuhebwa, Mawanda, and Zebra Ssenyange who have been on excellent form in the league performed better in Dakar than Bwogi who was from professional boxing”

When UOC overpowered UBF to bring back Olympians Musa Bwogi and David Ssemujju on the team, Muhangi threw in the towel in protest of their return.

The vocal UBF president also cited NCS’s failure to provide the team funds on time forcing him to step aside something that demoralized the team.

UOC’s Confusion

Many boxing stakeholders believe UOC messed up with everything.

This follows the commission’s indecision on the final list of the team to Dakar.

The worst part of it came when UOC faltered with some boxer’s biodata plus entering them in the wrong weight categories.

Professional boxer David Ssemujju who was included by UOC on the without UBF’s consent was entered in the lightweight category.

Yet he had spent the last five years boxing in the middleweight category and needed to cut over 15kilos if he was to travel.

UOC also chose featherweight Jonathan Kyobe over Kassim Murungi but the former’s recent performance in the league had declined in comparison to last year when he won bronze at the Africa boxing championship in Maputo.

No wonder his rival Murungi defeated him in the league.

That aside, UOC released three final bomber shortlists for Dakar that included one of August 25th, August 28th then August 31st, 2023.

It is clear proof of how confused they were.

Before the Dakar trip, Dr. Donald Rukare the UOC president revealed to Vision Sport that, “Those saying we are taking Shadir Musa Bwogi and David Ssemujju are wrong. They are on the list as reserve boxers. We will give priority to the main boxers in their respective weights”

But Bwogi, who was removed from the shortlist twice before being reinstated back, found himself in Dakar.

NCS’s fault

‘Don King’ Samuel Lukanga, the Uganda boxing grandfather blames NCS.

“From the start, our preparation was not good. This goes back to NCS. It is not logical to take a team to Olympic qualifiers that was not prepared. How on earth would they deliver?” Lukanga stated.

Matter of fact is that the bombers only camped for three days between September 2nd to 4th at Kavumba Recreation Center before they flew to Dakar on September 5th.

Rukare once revealed to us that;

“UOC is not mandated to handle and release funds for this team but rather NCS. Go and inquire from them”

Citing a letter dated August 25th, UOC through its General Secretary Beatrice Ayikoru revealed NCS had released sh186m for the qualifiers.

Toughest Qualifier

This year’s qualifiers have been the most competitive ever before.

Only gold medalists qualified for the Paris games in the men’s category and were joined by eleven women finalists.

It is contrary to the previous qualifiers where each weight could take a minimum of three in the men’s side.

Algeria qualified the most boxers 5, and hosts Senegal did not qualify a single boxer, Ghana fielded a full team of 13 boxers but none of them punched their way to Paris as Kenya that had camped in Cuba for almost a month before the action started.

It explains how tough this qualifier was.