The Speaker of parliament, Rebecca Kagada has openly accused minister of state for sports Charles Bakkabulindi of failing sports development in the country.
Kadaga says most of play grounds have been privatised and the available few have no turf, saying the development of sport infrastructure is the responsibility of the minister.
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Kadaga was speaking at the 33rd Nile Special Uganda Sports Press Association Awards (USPA) on Friday where she reprimanded the sports minister of the death of sports industry in the country.
“I am always angry when our teams win, sometimes I don’t want the minister (of sports) to even take the floor and speak, because he has not contributed, because government has not contributed,” she said.
“There are always lavish parties for the winners, but what have we put in to make them win? That is is the problem,” Kadaga said.
Kadaga castigated the minister for championing the privatisation of sports grounds in the country.
“There are no longer sports grounds in schools, they have been given away to investors imagine, children have nowhere to play. Nakivubo is no longer a stadium, if you go to Bugembe in Jinja u will only see a wall, you go to Mbale it is not there, the one in Soroti is now a market, Mbarara is now something else, I am angry.”
Among the different stadia in Uganda today, only Mandela National Stadium commonly known as Namboole meets international standards, but of recent has been struggling to maintain the standards as they keep hiring it out to events by christian churches that ruin the tuff.
In March 2015 President Museveni directed the Ministry of Education and Sports to handover Nakivubo stadium to an investor for redevelopment.
In a March 2 letter to Education minister Jessica Alupo, the President said he was endorsing the redevelopment of the stadium since it was in a sorry state to the extent that “FIFA banned it from hosting international matches”.
The Shs54b project, which is being undertaken by ROKO Construction Company, will have the pitch, two suspended floors, a two-level pavilion, netball grounds and the roof.
It has however stalled, but the sports minister assured the nation it will be ready by 2021.
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