In the minimalist glow of a Kampala studio, where the air hums with the faint echo of distant traffic and the weight of untold stories, Allan Okello sits like a man who has measured every scar.
At 25, he is Uganda’s fleeting wizard – a slightly-framed playmaker in the spirit of the No. 10, conjuring from midfield with the sleight of a poet’s hand: silk passes that unravel defences, free-kicks that curl like unanswered prayers.
His thunderbolt against Mozambique in World Cup qualifying, a 30-yard lash from Jude Ssemugabi’s roll-on pass, still reverberates – Uganda’s 4-0 romp, Okello’s first-half probe blooming into second-half salvation.
He has so far scored in the Cranes’ last three qualifiers, against Guinea, Mozambique and Somalia, each goal an act of resurrection more than celebration.
At the 2024 African Nations Championship (Chan), he emerged Uganda’s top scorer with three goals and some assists as the Cranes reached their first-ever quarterfinals – a tournament that seemed to cleanse him of years of doubt.
Vipers’ faithful now chant ‘Ssalongo’ – father of twins in social speak, but also a bearer of doubles, including his first at KCCA – after he tallied 19 league goals from midfield last season, a league-and-cup conquest that etched his name into Kitende’s lore.
And now, with Cranes qualifiers against Botswana and Algeria looming, Okello’s boots tread the thin line between legacy and longing – each touch a stake in Uganda’s slim Fifa 2026 World Cup dream.
Yet as he unfolded his tale on The Game of Life – a YouTube podcast I host – the voice that narrated these glories trembled at the edges, a quiet war etched in pauses and averted eyes.
The Journey
Okello’s journey is no linear ascent, no bootstraps romance. It is football’s brutal arithmetic: subtract a mother’s fierce light at 13, divide by the isolation of Algerian exile, multiply by mentors’ fleeting grace, and what emerges is not triumph alone.
A ledger of losses – witchcraft’s hex, hospital silence, lockdown’s void – balanced precariously by faith’s unyielding thread. ‘God didn’t forget me,’ he repeated, a mantra polished by countless whispered prayers.
From Lira’s carefree streets to Paradou’s shadowed apartments, Okello played not just for glory, but for breath itself. This is the story of a boy who buried his heart on a village hillside – only to unearth it on pitches where every touch became tribute.
The cradle was Lira, northern Uganda’s sun-flayed heartland, where football seeped into Okello’s veins like water through parched soil.
Born the first of four to Patrick Ojom, whose winger’s dash for Pamba FC still fuels fireside yarns – ‘right-footed, position seven, those old ways,’ Okello mimicked with a grin – and a mother whose love was labour incarnate, he grew amid a footballing lineage.
Uncle Bob Obira, the topflight veteran of KCCA and Express, loomed largest: a colossus whose shadow pulled a seven-year-old Okello from village idyll to Kampala’s sprawl.
‘Coming to the city was big, very big,’ Okello recalled, eyes alight with the wonder of it.
Obira’s house became a sanctuary, his training pitch a rite: the boy, small as a sparrow, slotted into adult scrimmages, dazzling with precocity.
‘His (Obira’s) friend said, ‘Who’s this young boy? He is special,” Okello laughed – then paused. ‘At eight, dawn runs – 5 a.m. slogs at my uncle’s – felt like punishment. But Uncle, thank you. I’m making you proud.’
Obira’s creed was simple: every game, give your best. You don’t know who’s watching. The lesson stuck – a compass in chaos.
The Rupture
At 13, in Form One at Kibuli SS, the call came not from father but uncle: ‘Daddy’s busy.’
Homeward bound, five minutes in their town house, then a blur to the village burial ground.
‘They told me to see the person we lost,’ Okello said, voice a thread. The casket’s lid lifted – his mother’s still, swollen face. ‘First time I knew,’ he whispered. ‘No warning.’
Whispers of witchcraft swirled: hexes targeting the boy first – midnight breathlessness, seizures that left him ‘switched off, like dead’ – his mother’s crusade across northern clinics and pastors’ altars the counter-spell.
‘She fought for my health so hard,’ he said, guilt’s barbs surfacing. ‘Looking for pastors, praying. without her, I wouldn’t be speaking now.’
The darkness turned. Her legs ballooned; ‘witchcraft stuff,’ they called it. The moment she got better, they lost her.
‘We almost lost Dad too – he went crazy,’ said Okello. Depression engulfed him – a year without football, life monochrome.
‘Everything ended. I loved her so much.’ He clung to faith’s frayed rope. ‘Keep fighting, keep praying,’ he told listeners. ‘I’m the right example – God didn’t forget me.’
Every goal since has been a dedication: arms skyward, Mom, see me. Pain’s alchemy – loss as fuel, memory as medal.
‘Part of the reason I never gave up football was losing her,’ he said. ‘Mom, I wish you were alive to see where I am right now.’ Faith – that unyielding north star – pulled him through.
Football, Mutebi, and KCCA
At Kibuli SS, education and football collided. No bursary at first; his father strained to pay.
Coach Hassan Tembo fought for him, negotiating a cut in fees by half. Providence struck: a full bursary, then prominence in the school team with Saidi Mayanja. ‘Coach Abdallah Mubiru believed in me. You need a coach who believes,’ Okello said.
Okello then had an opportunity for trials at – wait for it – SC Villa trials. Well, that sojourn lasted only three days, and neither he nor Mayanja got a look-in.
But in KCCA’s rondo, coach Mike Mutebi spotted the boy’s poetry amid 30 hopefuls: ‘Don’t let that boy in there – sign him straight away,’ Mutebi told Richard Malinga, who had scouted Okello from school football.
A year shadowed the seniors – full drills, junior matches, unpaid but immersed.
Julius Poloto and Ronald Kikonyogo were promoted; Okello waited. After Vipers’ 3-1 loss at Nakivubo, Mutebi said: ‘Be patient. Definitely I’m going to promote you next year. Trust me, trust what I’m doing.’
The boy nodded, but fire simmered. ‘I felt when it was 2-1, I wanted to go inside.’ Mutebi’s retort: ‘Stop being funny, but I like that confidence.’
But he was sold. He had to tie the boy to some agreement. Salary dawn, pre-contract risk: ‘I’m going to take my risk. from my pocket if needed.’ That was Mutebi’s resolve.
Their bond? Paternal, profound – Mutebi’s silence at half-times a trust’s quiet language. ‘When he speaks at half-time, you know you’re doing badly.’
Mutebi has not coached since leaving KCCA in 2019, something that is not sitting well with Okello.
The Vipers player’s plea, who admitted to missing Mutebi, now ached with urgency, pleading with KCCA’s most successful manager to come back to the dugout
‘Not for me as a player but for those young kids outside there that need a really good coach like him. Come back to football and give that another five years or three years. We are going to see another great talent coming.’
While still in charge at Lugogo, Mutebi’s timing was genius. He threw Okello on the bench in a Caf preliminaries match away to Angola’s Primero de Agosto.
It was an Angolan storm for young Okello – bench terror, clearances like thunder. ‘Wanted to kill me,’ he quipped, ‘Agosto was attacking us like we had stolen something.’
He didn’t play that one but Mutebi did bring him on away to Mamelodi Sundowns for a 10-min cameo in the 2-1 defeat: ‘Nothing to lose,’ he told me.
Next was at home vs. Onduparaka: sleepless vigil for Okello, with Poloto the midnight counsel.
He was in the lineup for a home debut, with Mutebi shockingly handing him set-piece duties from his idol Muzamiru Mutyaba. Teammates vowed: ‘We’ll chase – you enjoy.’
First goal: Fanta’s (Mutyaba’s nickname) cross, roofed volley – yellow for shirt-tug joy. He added two more as KCCA romped to a 7-0 victory. ‘I had prayed to God for only one goal, now I had three.’
Two years later he was counting two league titles and as many Uganda Cup trophies, as well as the Cecafa Kagame gong.
Illness ambushed him later in 2019 as a move abroad loomed. He was hospitalised for three weeks without hearing from KCCA: ‘No call, no visit.’ His agent at the time, Isaac Mwesigwa, paid bills.
Paradou exile, and Vipers rebirth
Paradou AC of Algeria eventually got their man, signing the then 18-year-old to a four-year deal in January 2020.
After a painful Covid lockdown, delayed payments and unfulfilled promises of having someone from Uganda live with him as part of his contract, Okello eventually did play some football.
Deployed in positions alien to his abilities, he endured – all he wanted was playing time.
But everything changed when a new coach replaced the one who had given him a lease on life, even if it meant pushing him out of position.
The exile nearly broke him. But Vipers President Lawrence Mulindwa’s call – ‘Come to Vipers’ – offered reprieve.
Treatment of a long standing injury first, then rebirth. ‘He (Mulindwa) said, ‘I know you’re going through a lot. Tell me everything,” Okello recalled. ‘I said, “I’m injured – treat me, and I’ll give you a better season.’
Okello had spent four months without a club after he agreed with Paradou to mutually terminate his contract with a year of it left following the end of a season-long loan to KCCA.
Mulindwa did. Okello delivered – 19 goals from midfield, a league-cup double, Chan redemption with Cranes, and now a run of goals lighting Uganda’s road to 2026.
Okello, Lira’s son, carries casket shadows and maternal light. Mom, see me. ‘In football’s ledger, he doesn’t just balance – he rises, a colossus as quiet as dawn.
You can watch my full conversation with Okello on The Game of Life with Andrew Mwanguhya on YouTube.
Okello Fact File
Full Name: Allan Okello
Date of Birth: July 4, 2000 (25)
Place of Birth: Lira, Uganda
Height: 1.79 m (5ft 10in)
Weight: 65 kg
Position: Attacking Midfielder
Current Club: Vipers SC (Uganda Premier League)
Jersey Number: 10
Former Clubs: KCCA (2016-2020, 2022 loan), Paradou AC (Algeria, 2020-2023)
National Team: Uganda Cranes (Senior debut – since 2019)
Agent: NextPro Sports
Contract Expiry: June 30, 2026
Major Honours
With KCCA
Uganda Premier League (2016/17, 2018/19)
Uganda Cup (2016/17, 2017/18)
Cecafa Kagame Cup (2019)
With Vipers SC
Uganda Premier League (2024/25)
Uganda Cup (2025)
Uganda National Team
Chan 2024 Quarterfinalist (Top Scorer with 3 Goals
Scored in 2026 World Cup Qualifiers vs Guinea, Mozambique and Somalia
Individual Awards
Fufa Male Player of the Year (2019) | Fufa Young Player of the Year (2018) | Airtel Fans’ Favourite Player (2018) | Football256 Player of the Year (2019)