{UAH} Only in Uganda:Want to be athletic champ? Sleep with the coach!

Only in Uganda:Want to be athletic champ? Sleep with the coach!

By Grace Nakato Updated Sunday, April 6th 2014 at 17:54 GMT +3

In the recent Africa Cross Country Championships held here in Uganda at Kololo Airstrip, we failed to win any medal despite competing at home. 

This was despite spending one month in training in Kapchorwa. Kenya swept away all the gold medals, and when asked to explain what caused the dismal performance, there were the usual excuses.

First was that the delays in facilitation impacted on the team’s morale. The monies only came through after the athletes declined to practise and threatened to boycott the competition. Secondly, some runners could not afford shoes, and made their way wincingly across the stony grounds. 

The fat hit the fire when whispers of sexual harassment began to trickle through, amidst the grumbles.  “He would wake up in the middle of the night and come to our room,” an unnamed female athlete was quoted as saying in the press. 

Another said: “He threatened to chase us from the camp if we ever said anything or turned him down. We didn’t have any female coach to run to. It was horrible. On some days, he would call one or two of us to his house. If you refused to do what he wanted, he would beat you up.” They were talking about the national coach Peter Wemali.

Ugandan team captain Moses Kipsiro intervened and helped the runners file a complaint with the Ugandan Athletics Federation (UAF) and the police. He told the press the girls revealed to him that the coach had told some of the female runners: “To run well, you must have regular sex and I’m here...or must have given birth”. Thus, the captain was kicked out of the team representing Uganda in the World Half Marathon Championships in Copenhagen, for talking to the press about the matter. 

The accused coach, Wemali, is an ‘untouchable” who works with the Uganda Police Athletics team, and is involved in running the Police Athletics Camp in Kapchorwa. This could be one of the reasons the Kapchorwa District Police Commander (DPC) Patrick Odokonyero decided to take the ostrich approach — burying his head in the sand — when confronted by the athletes. He claims since most of the athletes are from the police, they should use preexisting channels to address their complaints.

Forget performance enhancing drugs, and the theory that most sportsmen believe in, ‘No sex before a competition’ mantra. Allegedly, Wemali promised that if they slept with him, they would win gold medals in the championships. He even allegedly encouraged them to get pregnant and abort. His theory being that if a woman’s private parts are widened by  regular sex or child births, their legs move easily. 

After repeated denials from UAF, the coach has been suspended and a five-member committee consisting of religious personalities, lawyers and sports personalities is soon to be named. This committee will be paid an allowance, sit and deliberate and, like always in Africa, no stone shall be left unturned. 

Meanwhile, Wemali will perhaps quietly change his names, and find another team, deeper in the village, to coach. Man must live (and eat), you know.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower