Uganda Boxing Federation (UBF) President Moses Muhangi recently cried out to the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) to restore boxing back into schools.
Muhangi made his remarks during the Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association (USSSA) Annual General Meeting held recently in Kampala. He was speaking on behalf of other federations that aren’t part of USSSA activity calendar.
“Our sport is being sidelined and there’s no way a sport discipline can prosper when it’s cut off the grassroots processes and schools are a hub of any sports development. I have begged this to no avail and I here beg again, Mr Commisioner (of sports), kindly bring back boxing back to school,” Muhangi was quoted by New Vision.
However, in a letter from the MoES Permanent Secretary signed off by Rev. Can. Duncan Mugumya and copied to several stakeholders, Muhangi’s complaint was responded to.
“The issues raised therein, have been presented to Senor Management of Ministry of Education and Sports for discussion. You will be informed of the position of the Ministry of Education and Sports after scrupulous consultations and discussions have been made,” part of the letter responding to Muhangi read.
For Muhangi, he delights in getting feedback on his complaint and he submitted a long missive stated below.
“Finally, the commissioner of sports has replied to my letter above, this gives us a great starting point and I’m happy that he calls it an alleged suspension of boxing in Secondary schools.
This simply means that even himself is not sure if actually boxing was suspended from schools or not. This is very good progress!
We shall now give him and the ministry some time as requested to investigate and there after we shall hopefully wait for the positive outcome of his investigation, my only request will be time frames but for now we shall allow him a benefit of doubt and us as uganda boxing federation are going to be extremely cooperative on this matter should our commissioner need any further information or clarification on our part.
Now that, there seems to be no proof of suspension, it automatically means that USSA has no reason not to include boxing on their calendar games/activities as we wait for the investigation to be carried out by the Commisioner. By known ugandan laws/ maxims : One is presumed innocent until proven guilty….so until the commissioner confirms that boxing was actually suspended from schools then we must presume that actually boxing has never been suspended from schools – its a mere allegation! and there should be no reason as to why USSA shouldn’t have boxing on their calendar games/activities.
Plus as federation we shall immediately organise a schools boxing competition for those schools that will be willing to participate as soon as possible.
I salute you commissioner for the response though abit delayed but never the less it has come through and I pledge to work with you to have this matter solved once and for all.
I will also send you an official response to your letter in due course.”
