Fans give Kamuli and Mayuge a good wash

By Douglas Mazune and Abubakar Mukose THE next time rally cars head for your area, ensure you look smart if you are to survive the wrath of the “very clean” fans that follow motor-sport. Motorsport went full scale to Busoga last weekend for the first time since 1994 with the TOTAL Quartz rally running through Jinja, Kamuli and Mayuge districts with a lot of fun-fare — and the bizzare. Namagera township, over 20 kilometres outside Jinja, witnessed a lot of the bizzare, with rally fans — many of them from Kampala— unhappy being in the company of many children, and even adults, whose clothes and all, had not seen water for a long time. The fans probably had in mind recent stories of jigger-infested people in Busoga. The fans thought up a personal hygiene campaign. They decided to give out coins to children to buy soap to bath and wash their clothes immediately, creating quite a scene and adding amusement to the rally. While many local fans joined to watch the rally and the amazing speeds being registered by the powerful cars, many had to first pass a cleanness test before being welcomed. At Namagera viewing point, a few kilometres away from the once jigger-infested Kamuli district, fans forcefully bathed dirty men and children. In their operation ‘Kick dirt clean up,’ fans bought basins, plastic cups and soap and went on to bathe men and children with a mixture of beer and water as bemused villagers looked on. Children who were later rewarded with sweets and sh500 coins seemed to enjoy it. Trouble for dirty villagers started when visiting fans noticed that most of the fans who came out were in their Sunday best, while others, probably the lazy ones, looked filthy. Local fans were on Saturday first treated to the first ever the super special stage at the spectator-friendly Jinja Agricultural Showground before the action moved into the villages. National champion Charlie Lubega, in a Mitsubishi Evolution IV, won the event sponsored by TOTAL and organised MOSAC. Results: 1. Charlie Lubega 2.Giovani Storchi 3.Kaka Junior 4.Wycliff Bukenya 5.Dipu Ruparelia 6.Nadim Lalani 7.Fatso Lubega 8.Tadeo Lubambula 9.Ismael Lule 10.Godfrey Katende 11.Issa Numba 12.Godfrey Kiyega. ends