For eight years, Wakiso Giants embodied a bold experiment. They arrived with colour, celebrity endorsements, a branded team bus, season tickets and ambitious plans to build a club deeply rooted in its community. They marketed themselves differently, embraced social media and attempted to professionalise several aspects of club management.
Yet on Saturday, founder Musa Ssebulime, popularly known as Atagenda, confirmed the Purple Sharks would cease operations, ending a journey that began in June 2018.
“I gave everything. Time, money, energy and belief. Sadly, football has a way of punishing those who genuinely invest in it. Some decisions are painful, but necessary. The biggest mistake is expecting fairness in a system that feeds on your passion and gives nothing back,” Atagenda wrote on his X account.
The announcement marks the latest chapter in a troubling pattern that has seen several ambitious clubs disappear from Uganda’s football landscape.
From Kamuli Park to the Premier League
The Wakiso Giants story started with a reported Shs100 million acquisition of Kamuli Park in 2018.
The club was rebranded ahead of the 2018/19 StarTimes FUFA Big League season and immediately attracted attention. Despite resistance and being forced to host home matches at Kyabazinga Stadium in Bugembe, the club secured promotion to the Uganda Premier League at the first attempt.
It was a team blessed with talent. Feni Ali, James Kasibante, Isaac Ntege, Ayub Kisaliita, Abdul Karim Kasule, Hassan Wasswa Dazo, Fahad Kawooya and Richard Kigozi formed the backbone of a squad that dominated the second tier.
The promotion triggered greater ambitions. Wakiso Giants moved to develop Kabaka Kyabaggu Stadium, unveiled a team bus, introduced season tickets and attracted celebrity supporters including musician Jose Chameleone.
For a while, the model appeared to work.
The sponsorship blow
Behind the scenes, however, financial cracks were emerging.
Chief executive officer Sula Kamoga believes the collapse of betting company Top Bet following regulatory changes dealt the club a blow from which it never fully recovered.
“After Covid-19 lockdown, Top Bet closed. It was the biggest funder of our activities. It therefore became practically impossible to operate normally,” Kamoga said.
He also recalled early obstacles.
“Truth is that we faced a lot of resistance when we were starting, like forcing us to play from Bugembe and also when a friendly with Azam (from Tanzania) was called off at the last minute.”
Fufa deputy chief executive officer Humphrey Mandu maintained that the cancelled friendly resulted from incomplete registration requirements.
“But then we had financial muscle and all that didn’t hurt us a lot,” Kamoga admitted.
The situation worsened after relegation from the Uganda Premier League in 2025. Another drop followed this season as Wakiso Giants finished second from bottom in the Fufa Big League with 31 points, condemning them to regional football. By then, sponsorship income had evaporated.
“When we were in the Premier League, we could collect around Shs5m on match days and supplement it with sponsorship from 1XBet,” Kamoga explained.
“But when the team was relegated, we lost 1XBet and the fans. In the Big League, the fans disappeared and we could only get some money from travelling supporters.”
The numbers simply no longer added up.
Growing frustration
Atagenda’s relationship with football authorities also deteriorated over time.
One defining moment came after a 2-1 loss against URA in 2023 when he publicly criticised referee George Nkurunziza for alleged biased officiating.
Three months later, Nkurunziza received a 10-year suspension over separate match-manipulation allegations involving a Gaddafi fixture.
The incident reinforced Atagenda’s belief that systemic problems continued to undermine investment in the game.
His frustrations frequently surfaced during appearances on online Uganda Fan TV, where he openly questioned the governance and direction of Ugandan football.
Saturday’s announcement suggested those frustrations had finally reached breaking point.
“Every chapter eventually finds its final page. Since 2018, the road has been long, the storms many and the silence often louder than the cheers. Till we never meet again,” the club statement read.
Not the first, unlikely the last
Wakiso Giants join a growing graveyard of clubs that once promised so much.
Victors won Uganda Cups in 2008 and 2010 before financial struggles crippled the club. Kira Young faded from the top flight after funding dried up. Proline remain trapped in the lower divisions. Busoga United disappeared amid licensing and administrative challenges. Nyamityobora and Tooro United also vanished from the elite landscape.
Then there was Victoria University.
The club lasted barely five years but remains one of the most ambitious projects Ugandan football has witnessed.
Owned by Serbian businessman Simo Dubajic, Victoria University rose rapidly after acquiring Kase in 2011. The club introduced professional medical structures, attractive player salaries, performance bonuses and ambitious recruitment.
Players such as Denis Iguma, Murushid Juuko, Savio Kabugo and Yasser Mugerwa became part of a star-studded squad that won the Uganda Cup in 2013.
Former communications manager Leon Ssenyange described it as “the model club”.
Yet despite the investment, the club never built a sustainable fan base. Home attendances at Namboole often struggled to exceed 100 spectators.
When financial support weakened and ownership changed hands, the project quickly unravelled. Relegation followed in 2016 and the club disappeared without trace.
The parallels with Wakiso Giants are difficult to ignore.
A structural problem
Former Arua Hills owner Joel Jaffer Aita believes football remains an emotional investment rather than a viable business in Uganda.
“My brother Atagenda, you have done well. I studied football for three years. Football here is meant only for passion, not business. The infrastructure is built not to make clubs prosper financially,” Aita wrote.
Aita recalled losing faith after what he claimed was resistance to a planned player transfer and a collapsed Shs1.5 billion sponsorship agreement.
Football critic and former SC Villa president Immanuel Ben Misagga argues that the problem runs deeper.
“These clubs were built on individuals and hype, not structures. When the owner got tired, broke or was blacklisted, the whole thing collapsed. No community trust, no shares, no youth pipeline to keep it alive,” Misagga observed.
He also points to the absence of meaningful revenue sharing and decentralised football administration.
“Every club outside Kampala is on life support, begging for crumbs. Mbale, Jinja, West Nile – all treated like outposts, not stakeholders.”
For eight years, the Purple Sharks tried to do things differently. They generated excitement, challenged conventions and briefly convinced many that a modern football club could thrive in Uganda. In the end, however, passion proved insufficient.
And as another club disappears, football fans are left confronting a familiar question: how many more must die before the system changes?
Key dates in Wakiso Giants history
June 2018: Acquisition of Kamuli Park FC
2018/19: Promotion to Uganda Premier League
2019: Move to Kabaka Kyabaggu Stadium project
2020-2025: Five consecutive seasons in the UPL
2025: Relegated from the Premier League
2026: Relegated to Regional League and club closure announced.