Boxing wrangles persist

fter boxer Muzamil Kakande was bundled off a flight to the Africa Boxing Championship in Cameroon in March, many thought that infighting had ended in Uganda Boxing Federation (UBF).

The fallout seems to heading to the peak after federation secretary forced his way into office at Lugogo recently.

Simon Barigo with the support of UBF executive members broke into office locking out the office assistant.

This follows a cold war between UBF president Kenneth Gimugu and his executive that has been raging for over year.

Working behind the scenes, UBF president Kenneth Gimugu has been fully in charge of all matters including all correspondences through an office assistant.

After accessing the federation seal by force, Barigo has promised to convene a UBF assembly to deliberate on the matter.

"Nobody has complained to us. I believe we did the right thing," he said, adding; "In terms of management and control, all is OK now. But much still needs to be done to put the situation right."

"We are tired of being messed up by an invincible president. We want to try to put the situation straight before elections next year," he said.           
                                             
In fighting in the UBF reared its ugly head when welterweight Muzamil Kakande was spiked from the Bombers squad Africa Olympic Qualifiers squad in March. Kakande was bundled off a Cameroon flight apparently because Gimugu had cancelled his name from the squad.

Matters worsened further when sh18m was withdrawn from the UBF account. Gimugu later acknowledged access of the funds saying that it was compensation for his personal funds which he hand rendered to the federation.

Barigo blames Gimugu for taking unilateral decisions and lack of accountability in disregard of the entire executive.

"There are so many ugly things which have happened here. But we would not like to cause a fight which will damage the federation," he said yesterday.

Gimugu was elected in 2013 through the Uganda Olympic Committee normalization committee after over 4 years of wrangles that tore apart the federation.  However, the situation seems to be far from over.