Mbabazi revelation shines light on flagging local coaches’ body

In 2013, I cleared my diary for a midweek afternoon assignment in which the scorching sunlight never relented.

After spending the first half of the assignment picking Charles Livingstone Mbabazi's mind in his tidy home space, the second half was occupied under the sun as a Bright Stars training session played out before our eyes. 

Mbabazi let his sidekicks take charge of the session as your columnist pushed the envelope to ensure that a supply line of thought-provoking questions was not fractured. With the punishing sun baking our brains, this was easier said than done.

Above all, stripped back to essentials, Mbabazi's life story was one that needed to be handled delicately. 

The very embodiment of a utility player during his playing days, Mbabazi managed to butter his bread in the Ivory Coast, Libya, and Ireland, to mention but three. Such was nomadism that typified Mbabazi's career as a player that his daughter was born in Libya and son in Ireland. 

The acronym WAGs (wives and girlfriends) does not make any effort in capturing the stabilising influence a significant other can have for a professional footballer.

Away from shopping trips that are always painted with the brush of an increasingly feverish venture, the well-intentioned sincerity and company of a WAG can help cushion blows fashioned by a sport’s rigorous demands and the culture shock of moving to a major city.

It is clear that Mbabazi's wife could not be reduced to a WAG that enjoyed smoothies and burgers under umbrellas set against the blistering sun in Abidjan or Tripoli.

Neither did she run up credit card debt in the biting cold of Dublin before a subtle heart condition forced him to bid farewell to playing professional football. 

When I accepted a glass of water in Mbabazi's home during the 2013 interview, it was not his wife that brought it. She had in fact taken her life in the house where the interview was taking place just under a year ago. That much I knew. 

What I did not know was that she also tried to take the life of the son she bore in Dublin. Mbabazi Jr., with reluctance and against his better judgment, took the foul-smelling concoction he was offered. While his mother succumbed to the poison, Mbabazi Jr., remarkably, lived to die another day. 

Mbabazi Sr. recounted all these gory details about his wife's last moments whilst wearing a straight face. She had been battling clinical depression, Mbabazi Sr. told me, barely flinching.

This week, Mbabazi Sr. opened up on how there has been little to cushion the blow since his wife’s passing more than a decade ago. He poignantly wrote this week thus:

“I have been living a life of lies since my wife passed away ten years ago[.] I have been drinking a lot to forget her[,] but I have to expect [sic] that she died and I move on and be a better dad to mi [sic] children.”

He added: “This comes from the bottom of mi [sic] heart to thank anyone who has supported me and gave [sic] me opportunities to work for them during mi [sic] condition and during those tough times and except [sic] me as a new man.”

The tell-all post on Facebook came barely days after Lawrence Mulindwa tore into the vast majority of home-bred coaches. This was after unveiling Nikola Kavazovic from Serbia as Vipers SC's umpteenth coach in as many years.

Last season, Mbabazi Sr.'s brief stint with the Venoms went a long way in confirming Kitende's considerably debased status as a revolving-door workplace for coaches. He was handed a two-year contract after Brazilian tactician Léo Neiva was handed a pink slip.

It is understood that Mulindwa was utterly flummoxed when, at one point, Mbabazi Sr. appeared to sack himself following a poor run of results.

Eventually, the axe did drop on Mbabazi Sr. after an awkward period in which he stood his ground and remained AWOL. There are, therefore, no prizes for guessing who the Vipers owner was referencing when he bound Ugandan coaches with unprofessionalism during Kavazovic's unveiling. 

To be clear, Mulindwa had/has every right to vent his spleen. Mbabazi Sr.'s revelation of how he remains emotionally scarred by his wife’s passing should, however, change the narrative.

Mike Mutebi once told me that a palpable lack of collegiality is the biggest undoing of Ugandan coaches. If the Uganda Football Coaches Association was doing half of what it was set up to do, the likes of Mbabazi Sr. would doubtless have a better support system.

Consequently, their productivity would be positively impacted. The time to wake up and smell the coffee is now.