Musanjufu Benjamin Kavubu
Those who watched Impis RFC Demolition Warriors and also watched them during the Tier 2 season were not surprised because their path in the Central Uganda Rugby Association (CURA) was almost perfect, their style of play was remarkable. They did show a glimpse of their potential during Uganda Cup but again, everyone pretended not to notice. Largely their refinement can be attributed to regional rugby structures. What looked like local resilience with clubs raising themselves through gritty regional competitions ran headfirst into an administrative reality, these regional structures created to decentralize rugby in Uganda are being constrained by the very system they were meant to complement. The season ahead will show whether these associations become engines of local growth or casualties of a governance model that prizes order and precedent over democratic renewal.
When Godwin Kayangwe won the URU presidency in 2019 he framed part of his mandate around taking administration “away from Kampala” and empowering regional structures. That political decision produced four sub-unions of sorts Central, Western, Northern and Eastern intended to professionalize administration and make development locally accountable. Kayangwe’s public agenda also ties into URU’s wider ambitions, including hosting continental competitions and expanding rugby infrastructure nationally.
But creating regional bodies by executive fiat is one thing, embedding them in a system that has long been dominated by technocratic (about two men) control is another. The URU executive is not an abstract list of offices. Its current composition of President, Vice Presidents (Commercial and Technical), Secretary, Treasurer, and representatives for Women, Age-Grade and Upcountry interests reflects an institutional logic that centralizes technical authority in a secretariat staffed by career administrators and technical officers, that’s the theory. Those technocrats have, whether intentionally and this has been done through institutional inertia, resisted the transfer of meaningful autonomy to regions.
The four regions do not present a single, simple picture. The Eastern association is arguably the most organized, it runs inclusive competitions, fields multiple clubs in the top tier and produces programs that are attractive to sponsors and broadcasters, some may say this is limited to the stone city but the reality is that EURA has things a bit figured out. The Eastern model, if it can be defended from internal club feuds offers a template for how regional rugby can feed national calendars and commercial streams. The URU’s own website show the Eastern region already has 3 teams represented in the Premiership, which is precisely the kind of pipeline decentralization promised by the President’s initiative.
Northern Uganda at the moment is the blueprint of the failure of regional Rugby, you can barely find information about NURA, and this is at the backdoor of fictional rugby matches and results being made up, the region’s development-led approach with a Regional Development Officer (RDO) style is the operational backbone of activity, coordinating district level work across widely dispersed subregions. Western Uganda has also been rebuilding its governance since the inception of this regional thing, they have a visible executive committee, explicit divisional portfolios (medical, schools, women’s), and active clubs and women’s teams, of course these are the building blocks of a credible regional federation. The contrast is stark when the Central region is put under the microscope.
Central Uganda Rugby Association has been the least institutionally coherent and we have to be honest about this. It lacks a formal constitution, top-tier clubs have been effectively excluded from its architecture which is not the case in EURA and the results are clear, leadership continuity is frail, previous chairpersons have abandoned the role and I, writing as someone who served briefly as General Secretary, left in part because the structure lacked clear operational rules and accountability. CURA has the smallest leadership structure which is a heavy burden on the volunteers who have and will always offer themselves to serve rugby, of course like all other Regions CURA also does have technocrats. This whole dysfunction matters because Kampala is not only the political center of the country, it is where the most commercially viable clubs and sponsors are based. If the Central region cannot manage credible governance, the national union risks a crippling disconnect between its political rhetoric on decentralization and operational reality. This is not merely a local management issue. it is a systemic governance failure with national consequences.
Putting a conspiracy theory aside, why the sabotage narrative is persuasive. Technocrats are not a conspiratorial cartel. They are functionaries who value uniform procedures, legal certainty and control of technical standards. But those same priorities can become gatekeeping behaviors when the technocrats conflate “order” with “central control.” Processes that require regional initiatives to pass multiple technical clearances, or that reserve final decision making for Lugogo offices, will predictably disincentivize local innovation. Clubs and regional leaders interpret this as sabotage because the bureaucratic friction consistently favors established, centrally linked actors and clubs that are comfortable navigating technical channels. The result, regional associations either shrink and also maybe merge with existing top-tier clubs to survive, which defeats the purpose of regionalization.
Concrete alternatives that fit Ugandan constraints. The rant above is not a call to de-institutionalize standards, it is a call to rebalance authority with safeguards that are administratively realistic and politically feasible in Uganda’s economic context. The following five reforms are practicable and designed to reduce administrative capture while preserving necessary technical oversight.
Establish an Independent Judicial and Arbitration Panel. Replace the current practice where the executive or secretariat has the final say in club eligibility or disputes with an impartial panel drawn from retired legal professionals, former players and independent administrators who hold no active club office. The panel should operate under legally defined deadlines for example 30–45 days for interim rulings, 90 days for final arbitration to prevent “justice delayed” outcomes. A binding arbitration system reduces the incentive for technocratic slow rolling and provides a visible, enforceable route for clubs and regions to secure timely determinations. When for example at CURA you have a committee of 4 or 5 and two have to step aside to avoid conflict of interest in matters arising involving two clubs they belong to, the technocrats will assume the void and normal cause havoc then give a one sentence apology on Union headed paper signed by the political leaders.
Introduce Regional Revenue Sovereignty for example via a 70/30 Sponsorship Split. Retain 70% of national sponsorship revenue for elite national competitions and central obligations, but ring-fence 30% for unconditional grants to the four regional associations. These grants would be administered directly to regional bank accounts, enabling regions to fund a Regional Development Office, grassroots programs and marketing without seeking prior secretariat approval. Since the URU has a CEO, he should lead this initiative and his office should be made of members qualified of course from every niche of Ugandan Rugby including Regions. The conditionality is minimal, basic financial reporting and a simple annual audit so regions can deploy funds quickly. This model preserves national commercial viability while materially empowering regions.
Roll Out a Standardized Governance Template for Clubs and Regions of course this has to be very comprehensive and accommodating to hybrid structures and not rigid. URU should publish a “Standardized Governance Template” that requires clubs and regions to register as independent legal entities with community based boards, conflict-of-interest rules, and clear succession protocols. The template should be simple and affordable to adopt, with technical assistance provided to small clubs during a 12 month transitional window. This prevents scenarios where individual proprietors or private companies claim ownership over community clubs and creates transparent logs of leadership transitions, of course humans will always find loop holes, but it will decrease on the opportunities for civils and corporate style take overs, that affect clubs and in time affect the regions.
Integrate Regional Rugby into Broadcasting and Marketing plans of the wider union, the only time regional sides get on air is when they are playing national 7s and invitational sides and a few incidents during Uganda Cup. Regional championships should not be relegated to sidelines. URU must negotiate broadcast packages including local broadcasters that aggregate regional rugby into a marketed product. If regional games are televised even in short highlight packages they become sellable assets to local sponsors and raise the commercial floor for regions. Pilot this integration with the Eastern region, which already demonstrates commercial traction, and scale based on verifiable sponsorship uplift.
Reform Talent Compensation to Build a Regional Development Fund. Amend the Principal Debtor clause so that when a top-tier club recruits a player from a regional association it pays a progressive compensation fee, a baseline player fee plus a “Wealthy Club Surcharge” that feeds a Regional Development Fund administered by the player’s regional association. This ensures that elite talent movement returns investment to the grassroots level that developed the player. The surcharge should be legally codified and transparently audited.
Implementation logic and mitigation of resistance. Change will meet resistance from those who benefit from centralized gatekeeping but they are very few and they can’t stand in the way of the many. The most credible pathway is a phased program with pilot projects and measurable KPIs. The Union can start with the Eastern region pilot to demonstrate the regions to broadcast pipeline and the effect of direct grants on hiring RDOs. URU has to simultaneously, set up the arbitration panel and pilot the compensation reform in one player transfer window to prove the mechanics. Publicize measurable outcomes, number of RDO-led youth programs, sponsorship revenue growth, dispute resolution timelines to reduce political friction and make the case for full roll-out. Someone from Logogo is going to say they have been doing this already but they didn’t do a good job of putting out the information.
Technocrats like Yayiro Kasasa and Ramsey Olinga, I can’t think of any others, these two are like the face of HQ, must be reframed as service providers rather than gatekeepers. That requires cultural change as much as legal reform. The secretariat should be retasked with standards, technical assistance and audit functions, while policy and commercial authority is devolved to democratically constituted regional bodies. This is a shift in role definition, not an abdication of responsibility.
The stakes are pragmatic. URU is preparing for high-profile continental fixtures and has publicly set national ambitions. If decentralization is merely rhetorical, Uganda will maintain a brittle structure that cannot sustainably grow players, markets or community support. If decentralization is substantive backed by legal arbitration, financial flows, governance reform, broadcast integration and equitable talent remuneration, Ugandan rugby can expand its base while protecting national standards.
The 2026 season is a test. CURA’s contraction would be a warning sign that the union’s current governance defaults still privilege centralized control over local initiative. Alternatively, pilots that demonstrate rapid dispute resolution, transparent funding, and broadcastable regional games will show that decentralization can be both stable and commercially productive. Institutional maturity is not measured by how tightly a secretariat controls proceedings, it is measured by how well a federation distributes capacity, manages accountability, and cultivates local ownership.
If URU’s leaders choose to convert their political initiative into an operational reality, they will need to accept a modest loss of centralized discretion in exchange for a more resilient, commercially diverse future. That trade off is not ideological, it is pragmatic. Decentralized empowerment properly regulated, transparently funded, and technically supported will unlock the talent, audiences and sponsors that Ugandan rugby needs. The alternative is a fortress of control that quiets innovation and narrows the domestic game to a handful of centrally approved clubs.
This rant is not a denunciation for its own sake. It is a blueprint for how a national union with genuine political will can operationalize decentralization in a manner consistent with Uganda’s economic and institutional realities. The tools exist, legal arbitration, targeted fiscal transfers, governance templates, broadcast packaging and equitable transfer rules. The task is execution, measurable, phased, and publicly accountable. If URU were to take these steps, the Eastern Giants, the Northern Clusters, the Western Revival and an empowered Central region will not be competing visions, they will be complementary pillars of a healthier national game. If not, the 2026 season will be another year where political ambition is drowned in bureaucratic procedure and the regions pay the price.
For those serving Rugby from any part of Uganda, within the regional structures, your need medals of honor. You serve a sport you love in the worst of conditions and yet you make things work. It’s as though you are miracles workers everyday. At the moment there is nothing from URU HQ that even shows they want regional rugby to be successful, honestly. So hang in, take advantage of the loop holes and press on with this addictive passion.
This post was created with our nice and easy submission form. Create your post!
Written by
<a href="https://benjaminwatchblog.wordpress.com/">Benjamin WATCH blog</a>, Community Manager <a href="http://afrobloggers.org.zw/">Afrobloggers</a>, Social Media and Africa Lead Coordinator Africaniwa, Real Estate enthusiast, Team Manager <a href="https://kyambogorugby.com/">Kyambogo Rugby </a>
Did this story move you? Every gift goes directly to Musanjufu Benjamin Kavubu — writers on Muwado earn from reader appreciation, not algorithms. Even $1 makes a difference.
Muwado weekly chart
Get Africa’s top 10 stories every Thursday
No account needed — just your email.
Want to follow Musanjufu Benjamin Kavubu and get notified every time they publish?
Create a free Muwado account →