The dark pain of long wait for “Masaza Cup” final
BY SOLOMON MWANJA
Masaza Cup is the Luganda phrase for county tournament organized by the Buganda Kingdom where subjects of the Kabaka have been waiting for the finals for close to two months as officials remain tight-lipped on the reasons for the delay.
During the time of the game, work comes to a halt in the entire Buganda Kingdom especially at the headquarters in “Bulange”. The semifinals were played about
Sources that spoke to this publication on condition of anonymity to be able to share freely due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the situation explains the partial disclosure of some of the Buganda Kingdom activities.
“There is a lot that is going on within the kingdom and there is no intention to touch the exact problem,” the source said.
The semifinals of the Masaza Cup were played on October 9, 2022 for a tournament that has been played throughout the year.
The entire tournament was interrupted at the initial stages where some games like Mawokota vs Buddu, Gomba vs Busiro and Buwekula vs Ssingo almost came to a standstill due to suspected cases of “Ebola”, Indiscipline cases of fans and also the limited capacities of the playing grounds were the reasons based on.
In 2021 the game between Buddu and Buwekula which ended 2-0 in favour of Buddu at St. Mary’s stadium-Kitende, was pushed from the initial date in December of the same year, it was later postponed to March 6, 2022 yet another new tournament kicked off shortly after.
Officials in charge of organizing the tournament attributed the delay of 2021 to the Cocid19 Standard Operating Procedures and the election environment in the country.
Owek. Henry Ssekabembe Kiberu the Minister in charge of sports in the Kingdom told this publication in an interview for this story that “We are aware of the pain for the delay of the Masaza cup final, but we shall not work beyond our limits. What I can only say is that the event shall be held at the right time. So people should not go ahead to speak what they don’t know.”
The Masaza Cup tournament had been taking place since time immemorial but they went into a lull during the Obote II reign. Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi revived the matches in 2004. The pending finals will be between Buddu tussling with Busiro on a date that is yet to be announced.
The Kabaka is supposed to be the chief guest of the day. This is the 18th edition of the Masaza Cup.
Mr John Busuulwa, the Treasurer of Mawokota and district councilor at Mpigi said, “I think the Kabaka is not in good health and that is why the finals have taken this long. We should wait for official communication from the kingdom.”
