Where’s Mama Becca’s money?

By Paul Waibale Senior VERY FEW people in Uganda have not heard of Mrs Becca Kazibwe, commonly known in Uganda’s soccer circles simply as Mama Becca. For about three decades Mama Becca has been a household name in the realm of football in the country particularly in relation to her role as Express FC’s superb support mobiliser. Given that state of affairs, Mama Becca has featured regularly on all sports pages, but this time round I am not writing about her in connection with the World’s most popular sport, called football in olden times and now known as soccer. My reason for writing is to join the condemnation of the dirty act whereby a big portion of the money contributed by several well wishers to help finance her treatment in South Africa has disappeared into thin air. The contribution was licked off by an appeal launched by three radio journalists, namely, Peter Zikusoka and Charles Ssebuggwawo of Radio Star, and Paul Chiwa of Radio Simbwa. Mama Becca being a well-known figure in the country, the appeal received an impressive response. Notably, the early respondents included none other than the First Lady, Mrs Janet Museveni, who contributed sh2m. Other dignitaries included Movement vice-chairman Haji Moses Kigongo and local government minister Bidandi Ssali who coughed shlm each. The Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) had every good reason to justify their contribution of shlm to the fund. One only needs to look at Mama Becca’s history to understand why cash strapped FUFA could not afford to miss the boat. History has it that Mama Becca was arrested during Idi Amin’s diabolical regime on the orders of Abudalla Nasur who was then Governor of Kampala and self-styled “sports disciplinary officer.” Nasur charged that Mama Becca and others arrested with her had been transmitting money they collected from Express supporters in the so-called Ki-rashia wing in Nakivubo Stadium to rebels fighting Amin’s government. Fortunately, she was released after a couple of days, but Express was banned. When Express was revived after Amin was overthrown Mama Becca resumed her role in Express FC, but her most up-to-date contribution to Uganda football is the introduction of women football in the country. She has helped FUFA to nurture a women’s national team which has featured in international competitions. Certainly she deserves FUFA’s pat on the back. What is rather surprising, though, is that Express as a club did not feature in the contribution list. Although Express chairman Charles Kirumira did make a personal contribution of sh300,000 one would have expressed the club to make recognisable contribution. But that is by the way. The real issue at stake is that of over sh7m collected for the Becca fund nearly half (over sh3m) cannot be accounted for. In other words, those who set off as Good Samaritans interested in assisting a national hero have turned out to be greedy money grabbers. This is a most irritating eventuality since it has the adverse effect of frustrating future genuine efforts to raise funds for similar purposes. Prospective contributors will have to think twice, or even thrice, before committing their money to a cause it might never reach. In any case, the bizarre act of swindling money designed to save someone’s life is, to say the least, inhuman. And the fact that the perpetrators of the act are [people who profess to be journalist is a disgrace to the entire profession. It is on that basis that I commend the action taken by USPA whereby the culprits have been suspended and a committee will be set up to probe the whole affair. At least this will constitute a remarkable step in the direction of damage control. That aside, there is need to take measures of ensuring that any impostors do not take the public for a ride in the future. One way of blocking misappropriation of such funds is to ensure that the bank accounts for such funds are not accessible without the collaboration of both the organisers and the beneficiaries. If that had been the case in Mama Becca’s case there would have been no way for the money “sneak out” of whatever account might have been used. It is not enough to lament the misfortune that has happened to Becca’s fund. Out of the ten million shillings needed for her treatment in South Africa, she has now sh4m. Let some respectable individuals or organisation take over from there and raise the remaining sh6m.