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Next year, when Uganda hosts some of the 52 matches that will be tucked into the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals programme, the train service from Kampala to Mukono will come under the spotlight. The Mandela National Stadium, expected to seat 64,125 fans after renovation, lies just a few metres off the Jinja-Kampala Highway.

The highway is the undisputed main artery of the capital and has gained notoriety for its gridlocks that are worsened by motorised traffic on the northern corridor.

All pointers are suggestive of the fact that 2027 Afcon match-days will only make a bad situation worse. The passenger operation on the Kampala-Mukono route that the Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) has run the rule over across an extended period is now emerging as a handy solution. But it increasingly looks like the country is far from seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

“We are working with the Ministry of Finance to make sure we can be able to convey the fans going to Namboole. They [the government] have approved Shs23 billion for works and also rehabilitation of the coaches, but then they are saying the money is not there,” Mr Benon M Kajuna, the managing director (MD) of the URC, recently told a Parliament committee.

The outstanding money was also meant to rehabilitate railway operations on the 28km Mukono-Kampala stretch, which forms part of the entire line running to the busy border town of Malaba.

Mr Kajuna, who succeeded Mr David Musoke Bulega as the URC MD in January last year, says the parastatal railway of Uganda operates extremely old passenger coaches and locomotives that will bring shame upon the country during the 2027 Afcon finals.

“Under normal circumstances, a locomotive is supposed to convey about 15 coaches, but we don’t have them. So inevitably, we use one locomotive to convey five coaches. That is underutilisation of the coaches. That means we are using too much fuel to handle this. As if that is not bad enough, you find that one locomotive can’t move the five coaches so we put the second locomotive in case one fails,’ he said.

“We don’t have passenger coaches. The coaches which are there are from the 1970s or 1980s. [They are] very old. They are actually a shame to us. So, we are asking the government to kindly give us money to procure new coaches for the fans for this Afcon. If they can give us the money, we would be able to [prepare for] least for Afcon,’ he added.

A train wreck

In a bid to restore full use of the Uganda Railways, the Government of Uganda (GoU) earmarked $412,863,000 (Shs1.5 trillion) for its parastatal organisation. This includes co-financing of $31,797,700 (Shs118b) (70 percent from the Corporate Internationalisation Fund of Spain and 30 percent as GoU counterpart funding), $200,000 (Shs745m) from the Global Centre for Adaptation (GCA), $79,802,500 (Shs300b) from the GoU counterpart contribution and $300,990,000 (Shs1.1 trillion) from African Development Bank and African Development Fund. But far from easing movement of freight along the northern corridor, and consequently improving trade competitiveness, things have been something of a train wreck.

‘As [the] URC, we face challenges. Cargo moves from Kenya to Malaba, and we don’t have the capacity to convey the goods from Malaba to Kampala. We have been having only two customers because of these constraints-that’s Roofings [Group] and Hima Cement [Limited]. But now customers are coming on board but they are giving us a lot of cargo which we are not able to convey,’ Mr Kajuna disclosed.

Mr Charles Kateeba, a former MD of the URC, says the absence of sufficient skilled workers has many a time derailed the parastatal organisation’s plans.

‘I feel that we need to train a competent team. Unfortunately, [we keep] bringing people from outside and thinking they will run [the URC]. They cannot. They do not have the culture. They don’t have the skills. They don’t have the connections. They don’t have extended relations with sister organisations and that is critical,’ Mr Kateeba shares.

While serving as the URC MD between April 2015 and June 2021, Mr Kateeba green-lit Shs20 billion that was reportedly spent in just a single day to build capacity of staff at the parastatal organisation. The parliamentary committee on physical infrastructure has called the expenditure into question.

‘From 2006 to 2018, Uganda Railways did not run trains. So, they had no skills for running trains. Neither technical nor managerial,’ Mr Kateeba told the committee.

Phantom procurements

The lawmakers on the committee, however, appeared to be unconvinced. It was also brought to light that out of the four pick-up trucks that were to be purchased by the parastatal, at least Shs185 million each, only three were procured. The fourth procurement was established to be a phantom. Mr Philip Bosco Asega, the URC’s Principal Internal Auditor, also conceded that another procurement-this time pound 60,000 (Shs260m) for office furniture-was just as ghostly.

‘Whereas the contract provided, under section miscellaneous expenses, that the project will provide fittings and furniture for the project and this is further budget for the project and this is further budgeted at pound 60,000, the furniture procured was not brought to the attention of the internal audit for witness of delivery in accordance with the treasury instructions,’ Mr Asega told the House Committee on Physical Infrastructure this month.

‘There were no office furniture delivered and witnessed by the internal audit of Uganda Railway Corporation by Consultrans [SAU], who were the service providers for the trainings under the capacity-building project funded by a loan secured from the Government of Spain,’ he added.

pound 35,900 worth of software that the URC indicated in a contract dated June 18, 2020, was purchased from Consultrans [SAU] also maintained a ghostly presence, with other IT equipment also affected, lawmakers on the House committee heard.

‘From the reconciliations and physical checks on the items reported to have been handed over by Consultrans [SAU], we were not able to see 13 items out of the 53 items,’ Mr Agesa stated.

Buffeted by crises at every turn, it remains to be seen whether the URC will be in a position to ease the pain when Uganda co-hosts the 2027 Afcon finals.

Ask any candidate mid-way through the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) programme how it is going, and the answer is rarely cheerful. The exams are notorious for their attrition: of five people who register for Level I, popular wisdom in the industry holds, only one will eventually collect the charter.

Yet every year, thousands more sign up anyway, drawn by the credential’s reputation as a passport into serious investment work. But what really separates those who finish from those who drop off?

In a discourse put together by CFA Society East Africa, a regional association of investment professionals, Diana Nthiwa, an investment analyst at Mayfair Asset Managers in Nairobi, Kenya, and Pauline Arigye, a partner at Curium Advisors in Kampala, dissect exactly how they did it. Neither had a conventional finance pedigree. Both finished, anyway.

How did the pair end up on the programme?

Ms Nthiwa trained as an actuary, a business professional who uses math and statistics to study future risks and money problems. Ms Arigye studied civil and environmental engineering. Neither had, in their own telling, much idea what a balance sheet was before they began.

Ms Arigye’s route into finance began with an unglamorous realisation: surrounded by colleagues at Uganda Development Bank with 15 or 20 years’ seniority, she ‘felt deathly uncompetitive.’

A charterholder colleague talked her into the CFA programme.

‘It is going to be the most remarkable journey of your life,’ she recalls being told, ‘and it’s not going to be easy, but it will be worth it.’

Ms Nthiwa arrived by a stranger route still; an actuarial-science graduate who, during a job interview at an insurer, admitted she was less interested in the premiums the firm collected than in where it invested them afterwards. She was describing an investment job, not an actuarial one.

Ms Nthiwa enrolled in the CFA programme at Strathmore University in Nairobi before she had even secured a finance role. ‘I didn’t have anyone around me who had done CFA before, and I wanted that community.’

Both insist the absence of a finance background was no real handicap. The curriculum, says Ms Arigye, ‘sort of teaches you how to teach yourself’, and that, more than any single technical skill, is what carries a candidate through three years of self-directed grinding.

How long does the grind typically last?

CFA Institute’s own guidance suggests candidates should budget around 300 hours of study per level. Both women blew straight past it. Ms Arigye reckons she logged closer to a thousand hours across her Level III attempts, having failed the exam twice before finally clearing it on a third sitting with the help of a paid prep provider.

Her reasoning was: ‘How do I give myself the best possible chance to succeed? And if the best possible chance to succeed required me to study three times, maybe the recommended amount, then yes, I just had to do it.’

Ms Nthiwa’s number was similarly inflated, ‘probably 600 or 700, I don’t know, I didn’t count’, and she is sceptical that the official figure means much in practice. Candidates already working in the investment industry, doing daily the sort of analysis the curriculum describes, might scrape by on less. Everyone else, her advice runs, should assume the marketing number is optimistic.

Is there a method to the madness?

Well, neither candidate found a single, universally applicable formula, but their approaches rhymed in several places. Ms Arigye’s preparation, mapped out with a mentor eight or nine months ahead of each sitting, followed a deliberate rhythm: seven months of maximum effort; six days a week, three hours before work and three after, followed by a taper.

‘In the last two months you need to start slowing down,’ she says her mentor told her. ‘Even take a break, maybe for a week; don’t study, maybe go to the beach, unwind, rest your mind.’

The final week dropped to roughly an hour of study a day, replaced by eight hours’ sleep and exercise, on the theory that a depleted brain performs badly under exam pressure.

‘The exam requires agility,’ she says. ‘It tests how fast you can interpret information, and if you’re not well rested… your critical thinking abilities are impaired.’

She also front-loaded the hardest material. ‘I always started with derivatives,’ she says, ‘because I felt if I start with a harder topic, then I give it more time for practice.’

Once a topic was covered, she kept cycling practice questions from it alongside newer material, so that by exam week the ratio of studying to drilling had inverted almost completely.

Ms Nthiwa leaned harder on outside providers, pairing Mark Meldrum’s video lectures with Kaplan’s question bank across all three levels.

‘There are no shortcuts to this thing,’ she says. ‘You’ve gotta go through the whole curriculum.’

She estimates she read roughly 90 percent of it directly, using provider materials mainly to unpick the densest sections before circling back to the source text.

Both were unsentimental about cost. Prep courses and question banks are expensive on top of already costly registration fees. To address this, Ms Nthiwa says, ‘get a group of people… cost-share…’

What are some of the best practices?

Mock exams, in both accounts, were less a rehearsal for success than a diagnostic instrument.

‘I just want to emphasise that mock exams are best utilised if they are not approached with a mindset to memorise the questions,’ says Ms Arigye.

‘They’re supposed to be a tool to expose where you can do better, where you’re struggling, and that information is all you need,’ she notes.

Ms Nthiwa offers a related warning against comparing scores mid-preparation. A poor first mock, relative to a friend’s, is not a verdict.

‘Don’t start losing hope, don’t think you’re doomed, you’re going to fail. Have enough time in between mocks and the exam. All the questions that you failed, go back to the curriculum, look at that topic, do a deep dive.’

Both candidates sat full mock sessions under real exam conditions; the same two-hour-and-fifteen-minute block, the same thirty-minute break, then a second full session, so that exam day itself held no surprises.

What the CFA charter costs you…

Neither woman pretends the process was compatible with an ordinary life.

‘CFA reading and prepping is going to take over your social life,’ Ms Nthiwa says flatly.

‘I don’t think I’ve met anyone who has told me they maintained their life the way it was before they started the charter,’ she adds.

The trade-offs were structural as much as social. Ms Arigye negotiated with her employer to bank her annual leave until just before each exam, buying herself a clear run-up period; she also set firm boundaries at home, warning her sister that certain hours were off-limits. Ms Nthiwa did the same at work, declining extra assignments after 4:30pm regardless of deadline pressure.

The single ingredient both credited most, though, was a study partner. Ms Nthiwa and Ms Arigye found each other through a WhatsApp study-group post ahead of Level III and ran the final stretch together, opening sessions, by their own account, with unabashed self-affirmation.

Can you further pack the programme?

Candidates are often told the levels ‘build on each other,’ a phrase that undersells how differently each one behaves.

Ms Nthiwa’s account of Level I doubles as a small morality tale. She arrived, by her own admission, overconfident; ‘I told myself, girl, you have done actuarial science, there’s nothing harder that you’ll come across’, until financial statement analysis disabused her of the idea.

A turning point came from an instructor who caught the class slacking. ‘You guys are taking this thing as a joke,’ she recalls him saying. ‘Haven’t you gone online seeing the pass rates?’

Of more than forty students in her cohort, fewer than ten passed that sitting.

The shock recalibrated her approach entirely. Level II, done largely through self-study with strict boundaries, became, somewhat to her own surprise, her easiest level, cleared above the 90th percentile. Ms Arigye locates the real inflection point at Level III, where the format shifts from pure multiple choice to include constructed-response questions. The skill being tested there, she argues, is compression as much as comprehension.

‘There was a requirement to be able to communicate your understanding of the information provided in the vignette as efficiently as possible; meaning don’t write paragraphs, don’t write stories, find a way to fit everything you’re saying into one line,’ she notes.

So what sins do candidates keep committing?

Overconfidence born of adjacent coursework is a persistent trap, in Ms Nthiwa’s telling, assuming a university course covered the same ground as the curriculum, and therefore reading it less carefully.

‘That’s a lie,’ she says. ‘The curriculum keeps on changing year on year.’

Careless reading of exam questions is another: candidates who select an answer on a first pass, without registering whether a question asks for a ‘pro’ or a ‘con,’ and only realise the error walking out of the exam hall.

Ms Arigye’s chief regret was procedural rather than substantive. She and Ms Nthiwa began their Level III discussion group in October, later than she would now advise, and found themselves scrambling for study-partner time even on Sundays. Her broader prescription for group study is to cap it at four people.

‘When you’re only four individuals or less,’ she says, ‘it allows you enough time to ask questions and ask them as many times as they need to be asked.’

Did it pay off?

Unreservedly, in both accounts, though the dividends look different.

For Ms Nthiwa, the charter changed how colleagues and prospective employers treat her; greater trust, more responsibility, unsolicited approaches from people she had never met, while she cautions that the letters alone are not the point. ‘As much as you have this charter, do you have the content, or did you just memorise your way through?’

For Ms Arigye, the payoff was structural: she left salaried employment at Uganda Development Bank this year to co-found her own advisory firm, crediting the programme directly with the technical grounding an engineering degree never gave her.

Across Uganda’s vast agricultural landscape, livestock farmers have long grappled with a persistent paradox. Despite the immense potential of animal husbandry to lift rural households out of poverty, grassroots producers frequently encounter a wall of structural constraints.

From low genetic productivity and weak breeding infrastructure to limited access to quality animal materials, uncontrolled cross-breeding, and escalating climate shocks, the journey from subsistence to commercial livestock farming has often been fraught with frustration.

However, a major institutional shift underway at Entebbe promises to alter this trajectory.

The National Animal Genetic Resources Centre and Data Bank (NAGRCandDB), a semi-autonomous agency operating under the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) pursuant to the Animal Breeding Act, 2001, recently in Entebbe, unveiled five comprehensive institutional instruments designed to overhaul the nation’s livestock sector.

The Minister of State for Animal Industry, Dr Bright Kanyontore Rwamirama, explains that these documents form a coordinated strategic framework aimed at translating high-level policy into tangible results that livestock farmers across the country can see, feel, and measure in their daily production routines.

The minister explains that the success of these instruments will not be determined by the pageantry of their launch.

‘Instead, their true worth depends entirely on how effectively these commitments are integrated into routine extension work, breeding operations, and farm-gate service delivery to drive up livestock productivity across Uganda.

Agro-industrial goals

To ensure practical technical knowledge flows seamlessly from research laboratories and breeding ranches directly to farm structures, NAGRCandDB launched its Communication and Knowledge Management Strategy (2026/2027 to 2030/2031).

This strategy governs how institutional evidence and technical learning are packaged and disseminated across digital channels, public awareness campaigns, and stakeholder networks.

By assigning clear roles for generating, validating, and preserving agricultural knowledge, the agency aims to give farmers rapid access to verified information on livestock breeds, feeds, and management practices.

Mr Robert Ssenozi-a Board member representing farmers from the central region-sharing on behalf of the chairperson of the Board of Directors, highlights the broader economic significance of this coordinated institutional framework.

He says the launch of the five comprehensive institutional instruments was not merely a ceremonial unveiling of policy booklets, but real economic possibilities for grassroots livestock producers.

He emphasised NAGRCandDB’s core mandate to lead the commercialisation of animal breeding and drive national genetic improvement.

Adding a macro-economic perspective, Dr Israel Mugezi, a senior Planner for Agriculture at the National Planning Authority (NPA), says that building a competitive and sustainable livestock sector on affordable, high-yielding, climate-resilient genetics is essential for Uganda’s broader growth.

He links NAGRCandDB’s breeding goals directly to sustaining Uganda’s growing export base for value-added animal products-such as milk powder-and fulfilling the value-addition targets set under the Agro-industrialisation Programme of the Fourth National Development Plan (NDPIV).

Coordinated livestock breeding

For decades, the missing link in Uganda’s animal industry has been a unified system connecting policy goals directly to farmer services.

Minister Rwamirama says the newly launched suite of documents closes this gap by establishing a seamless roadmap for planning, execution, public accountability, and technical knowledge sharing.

‘At the centre of this strategy is the National Animal Breeding Strategy and Action Plan (NABSAP).

Published as the country’s flagship framework for animal genetic resources, ‘NABSAP establishes clear guidelines for the sustainable development, characterisation, inventory, monitoring, and conservation of indigenous livestock traits,” the minister says.

The strategy also facilitates wider farmer access to high-yielding, market-oriented, and climate-resilient genetics, according to the Minister.

‘This balanced approach ensures that while farmers upgrade their herds for higher commercial output, Uganda’s irreplaceable indigenous genetic diversity-vital for long-term adaptation to diseases and harsh weather-is systematically protected,” he said.

Translating this national vision into concrete medium-term investments is NAGRCandDB’s Strategic and Investment Plan, running from FY2025/2026 to FY2029/2030.

The minister says under the five-year investment plan, the agency is committed to accelerating the breeding and multiplication of farmer-preferred breeds across multiple value chains, including dairy cattle, beef cattle, goats, pigs, poultry, and fish.

Crucially, the plan also prioritises the production of quality, affordable animal feeds, the conservation of native genetic stock, and the institutional strengthening required for efficient service delivery.

Powering the Parish Development Model

For smallholder farmers seeking to commercialise their operations, access to superior breeding stock has historically been limited by high costs and long distances.

NAGRCandDB’s new Strategic and Investment Plan directly addresses this hurdle by anchoring its breeding output to the government’s Parish Development Model (PDM).

Under this targeted directive, NAGRCandDB is stepping up direct support to PDM enterprise groups by making high-performance livestock genetics available at highly subsidised prices. The primary focus of this intervention centres on three high-impact enterprises: dairy cattle, piggery, and poultry.

To ensure these superior genetics reach rural parishes efficiently, minister Rwamirama says NAGRCandDB’s network of centre farms and ranches will act as active breeding, multiplication, and technology-transfer hubs.

“Working hand-in-hand with local governments, farmer organisations, and local PDM structures, these hubs will not only distribute subsidised animals but will also pair genetics with crucial technical guidance on proper breeding practices, balanced feeding regimes, and enterprise management,” he said.

This integration connects PDM micro-financing directly with certified animal genetics and expert management advice. By doing so, the intervention aligns with the core mandate of the PDM: driving socio-economic transformation by raising household productivity, boosting farm incomes, and transitioning subsistence homesteads into the commercial money economy.

Progress will be monitored through clear performance indicators that track the specific livestock breeds and poultry genetic materials multiplied and distributed to parish farmers.

Enforcing Public Accountability and Swift Service

A common complaint among livestock keepers in past years has been bureaucratic delays when seeking government extension, artificial insemination, or technical guidance.

To eliminate these bottlenecks, NAGRCandDB has coupled its technical strategies with two public-facing performance standards: the Client Charter (FY2025/26 to 2029/30) and the Service Delivery Standards (FY2025/26 to 2029/30).

Together, these documents function as a binding social contract between NAGRCandDB and the farming public. They explicitly state what services farmers, livestock breeders, feed manufacturers, and input suppliers should expect, while establishing transparent mechanisms for feedback and dispute resolution.

Under the strict operational benchmarks laid out in the Service Delivery Standards, agency staff are required to attend to visiting clients within five minutes of their arrival at service points.

Furthermore, written correspondence from farmers or agricultural partners must receive an official response within five working days.

When complaints arise regarding service delivery or product quality, the Client Charter mandates that formal acknowledgement be issued within 48 hours, while any matter requiring administrative investigation must be fully concluded within 14 days.

These concrete timelines provide livestock keepers with a clear basis to hold public officers accountable and demand high-quality service.

A New Era for Livestock Producers

Taken together, these five instruments-NABSAP, the Strategic and Investment Plan, the Client Charter, the Service Delivery Standards, and the Communication and Knowledge Management Strategy-form a single, synchronized framework designed to elevate Uganda’s livestock economy.

For the everyday farmer tending to dairy cattle in the cattle corridor, raising pigs in central districts, or managing poultry flocks in Eastern Uganda, the success of this strategic push will ultimately be judged at the farm gate.

As implementation takes off, farmers can look forward to more accessible and affordable breeding materials, reliable extension data, prompt service at regional centre farms, and a responsive institutional support system built to turn livestock farming into a thriving commercial business.

A new gold mining project in Yumbe District is targeting production of up to 20 kilogrammes of gold per week as the government pushes for formalisation and responsible mineral exploitation.

Last year, according to Bank of Uganda, gold exports alone contributed $5.8 billion (Shs21.1 trillion), up 44 per cent from the previous year, while coffee exports earned $2.4 billion (Shs8.7 trillion), a 40 per cent increase.

Euro Gold Refinery, which launched its small-scale mining operations in Yumbe, says it will initially operate two processing units, each with a capacity to produce about 10 kilogrammes of gold per week, with the target of increasing export earnings.

The project follows more than two years of prospecting, exploration, geological surveys and drilling to establish the area’s mineral potential.

Speaking at the launch of the mine yesterday, Ms Phiona Nyamutoro, the State Minister for Energy and Mineral Development, said the mine is expected to boost mineral production, create jobs and contribute to the socio-economic development of the West Nile sub-region.

‘Our presence here is evidence of the government’s commitment to supporting miners across the country to formalise mineral exploitation. This is to call upon all miners across the country to collaborate and abide by the mining laws. We shall stand and support them,’ Ms Nyamutoro said.

She said the project provides an example of responsible and sustainable mining, noting that the facility operates without mercury and has the capacity to crush up to 60,000 tonnes of ore.

The minister said the project has the potential to create employment opportunities for people in the area while contributing to development through corporate social responsibility initiatives.

‘Mining companies are required to enter into community development agreements, which are monitored and supervised by the ministry to ensure that host communities benefit from mineral activities,’ Ms Nyamutoro said.

The ministry urged miners to comply with mining laws, saying the government is willing to provide support to operators who choose to work within the legal framework.

On protecting formal mining enterprises from illegal miners, the minister said operators and other stakeholders must follow the provisions of the mining laws.

‘We call upon them to formalise and do the right thing because at ministerial level we have tried to reach out a helpful hand to see that the miners get all the support they can from government,’ she said.

Ms Nyamutoro also raised concerns about the health risks faced by small-scale miners, particularly respiratory diseases caused by prolonged exposure to dust, urging miners to use personal protective equipment (PPE) as required by law to reduce occupational health risks.

Mr Ben Mungu Feni, the director of Euro Gold Refinery Uganda, said the project was only the beginning of a larger mining operation covering about 79.8 square kilometres, stretching from Yumbe into neighbouring Terego District.

‘We have been on this ground for over two years. We undertook geochemical and geophysical surveys, among other studies, before establishing its current processing capacity,’ Mr Mungu Feni said.

He said the company chose Yumbe as its pioneer mining site because of the presence of several small-scale miners in the area.

Instead of operating separately, Mr Mungu Feni said the company plans to bring miners operating under its licence into a more organised system, with processing conducted at a central facility to improve accountability and traceability.

The move is expected to bring informal miners closer to government regulations and create a more structured gold supply chain in the region.

The company said more than 70 per cent of its workers had been recruited locally, describing local employment as one of its priorities.

‘We said as we come to you, we shall be able to have the licence, equipment and machines, but we want to work with you together,’ Mr Mungu Feni said.

The project is also expected to provide a market for gold produced by local miners while supplying raw materials to the refinery.

Uganda remains one of Africa’s fastest-rising gold exporters. Statistics from the Bank of Uganda indicate that gold exports increased by 76 per cent to $5.8 billion (about Shs20.5 trillion), from $3.3 billion (about Shs11.7 trillion) the previous year.

The increase has been attributed to higher production and rising global gold prices, which averaged $2,709 per ounce in 2025

Norman Blick has spent much of his life finding another way.

When the basketball door opened in Jinja, he walked through it almost by accident.

When Kenya offered him a better education in the sport, he traveled overnight by bus to return home and play for Sky Jammers without his coaches’ knowledge.

When Qatar wanted a big man, he adapted-even though they eventually discovered he was not one.

When clubs changed, contracts failed, and coaches frustrated him, he found another team.

And when basketball itself appeared to be finished with him, he found another reason to stay close to it.

‘I’m thinking I should not keep it to myself. I should give it back, or in other words, let it live on,’ Norman says.

That may be the simplest way to understand the man behind one of Uganda’s most enduring basketball careers.

A different beginning

He did not even set out to play basketball. ‘I started out as a footballer,’ he says.

But influenced by his school friends in Jinja, most of whom were basketball players, the tide naturally turned. He followed them, started trying the game, and gradually fell in love with it.

His mother initially saw sports as a distraction from his books. Then she began seeing her son’s name in the newspapers.

‘She became my number one fan,’ he recalls. The transformation was rapid.

From Jinja, Norman went to St. Joseph’s College Ombaci in Arua, where he became part of a small basketball community. Then came Kenya, where a week-long camp with KCI impressed coaches enough to offer him a place in Nairobi.

It was there that his understanding of basketball changed.

‘I realized the basketball I knew was actually mediocre basketball,’ he says. ‘There, they train you how to live, eat, sleep, and think basketball while keeping your grades up at the same time.’

It was not simply about becoming a better player; it was about becoming a student-athlete.

The workload was relentless: classes, gym sessions, individual skills, team practices, and even training with the girls’ team before joining the boys. By evening, he was exhausted.

Overnight passion

But the game was already becoming an obsession. So much so that Norman would secretly leave Nairobi on Friday night, arrive in Uganda on Saturday morning, play a league game for Sky Jammers, board another bus to Kenya on Sunday, and be in class on Monday.

‘That was the passion I had for the game,’ he tells me on my podcast, The Game of Life.

Clearly, the journeys were far from glamorous. Country buses, taxis, and long nights became part of the price of playing for the team he had grown up around.

Yet those trips were also about giving back. He brought ideas and plays from Kenya to Sky Jammers, helping transform a side that had once lost games by 30, 40, or 50 points into one capable of competing with the best.

Championship feeling

In 2001 came the moment that changed everything. Sky Jammers beat defending champions Power in the finals, and Norman still remembers that championship as his best.

‘Definitely, it was my best,’ he says. ‘Because it was really made at home.’

More titles followed with Nkumba Marines, Power, and Warriors. There were international club spells in Qatar and Congo, a stint in the UK, and a career that stretched across roughly two decades.

Beyond home

In Qatar, the difference was stark. For perhaps the first time, basketball was simply a profession.

‘I didn’t have to work. I didn’t have to study. It was strictly basketball.’

The contract came with things he had not always known: proper payment, housing, equipment, and structure. He played for both the junior and senior teams before a foreign-player rule effectively ended his stay.

He returned home, and his career continued. There were championships, changing clubs, disappointments, and moments when he wondered whether he had reached the end. He even worked as a teller in a bank before a chance encounter with a manager persuaded him to return to basketball.

When it hurt

‘I had to go do this. So I joined. I mean, it’s what you love.’ That encounter was with current FUBA president Nasser Sserunjogi, who was then in active management at KIU Titans.

His love for the game was tested at KCCA and JKL Dolphins, where he struggled for playing time despite his experience. At JKL, he eventually reached a breaking point. ‘I said, ‘I think I’m done with basketball.” But the game kept calling.

His national-team journey was equally complicated. He captained Uganda and remembers the pride of representing his country, but also the indignities.

Uganda sometimes traveled abroad by bus, arrived without proper accommodation, and played opponents who appeared to inhabit another sporting universe. ‘We didn’t look like a national team,’ he says.

He remembers arriving for one game having barely settled, while the opposition-Rwanda-stepped off a bus looking like professionals, headphones on and national colors perfectly presented.

‘We had already lost from there.’ Yet there were still moments of genuine progress.

Under better organization over time, training conditions improved. Players received shoes, ate properly, and stayed together in camp. In due time, Uganda beat Kenya and Rwanda to qualify for their first-ever AfroBasket in 2015.

Then came another painful moment. Funds were limited, and some players were omitted from the team selected for the next assignment. Norman was one of them.

‘Being handpicked just like that, right there and then, I said, ‘I’m done.’ That’s when I retired.’

He felt he belonged, yet he was left out. ‘I was still there. Definitely, I should have been there.’ He walked away.

He did return, but two years later came what became the final break. Norman was left out of the traveling team for an AfroBasket qualifier in Egypt after presenting an expired passport. He never returned to the national team setup.

Finding his way

When a drinking problem almost claimed it all while he was still at Power, he absorbed the pain and, with the help of family and church, somehow found his way back.

Now, steadily finding his path, he is channeling that energy into shaping the next generation.

His days are increasingly about children rather than trophies. He works with schools and hundreds of young players. At one primary school alone, he says he works with about 300 children over weekends.

His initiative, Strong Minds, Strong Bodies Through Basketball, grew from seeing children who loved the game but could not afford shoes. Some played barefoot.

A bigger dream

He started a shoe drive, bought jerseys, training equipment, and basketballs, and found ways to turn even small school spaces into courts.

At Kisaakye Nursery and Primary School in Mengo, he says teachers reported that P7 pupils were improving their grades after taking up basketball.

The vision is bigger. ‘If I can get as many kids to the national team, that would be my greatest achievement,’ he says.

He wants an academy that is more than a name on paper: a physical base where children can train, study, and eventually move into university or professional basketball.

Lessons unlearned

Norman also wants to correct a failure he knows personally. His generation was not properly prepared for contracts, money, business, or life after sports.

‘We were never taught how to handle money-or even how to earn it.’

He remembers signing contracts without understanding them fully, dealing directly with managers, and wondering whether he was being cheated.

Now he wants younger athletes to have the advisers his generation lacked.

‘Those who are just learning need not go through what others have gone through.’

That is the final evolution of Norman Blick. The player who once traveled overnight to play a Saturday game is now trying to build roads for children who may one day travel much further.

His greatest achievement, he suggests, may not be another championship. It may be seeing one of those children reach the national team, college, or Europe-or simply discover that basketball can change the direction of a life.

For a man who spent 20 years adapting to whatever the game demanded, perhaps this is the most fitting role of all: not walking away from basketball, but making sure it lives on.

Police in Luwero District have arrested two suspects in connection with the murder of a boda boda rider who was attacked and robbed of his motorcycle in Mabanda Zone, PWD Ward, Luwero Town Council.

The suspects, identified as Timothy Nsubuga and David Katerega, were apprehended and are currently detained at Luwero Town Council Police Station as investigations continue.

According to police, the incident occurred at around midnight on August 20, 2026, when the rider was attacked by unknown assailants who struck him with a hammer before making off with his motorcycle, a red Bajaj Boxer.

The victim was found by good Samaritans at the scene and rushed to Luwero General Hospital before being referred to Mulago National Referral Hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.

A report of the aggravated robbery was formally received by police at around 2:15am on the same night. Detectives moved swiftly, using a tracking device fitted on the motorcycle to trace its location.

The motorcycle was later recovered from a parking yard in Kasegenge village, Wakiso District, leading investigators to the two suspects now in custody.

Police say the arrested duo are believed to be part of an organised crime ring behind a spate of motorcycle robberies in Luwero District.

Investigators say the suspects will undergo further interrogation to establish their networks and identify additional accomplices for arrest and prosecution.

The recovered motorcycle is being held as an exhibit as police continue investigations into the full circumstances surrounding the attack.

The newly ordained priests and deacons of Kabale Diocese have been asked to restrain their bodies from committing sin and to be men of wisdom rooted in the Roman Catholic Church faith.

The remarks were made by the apostolic administrator of Kabale Diocese, Rt Rev Callist Rubaramira, during the ordination ceremony of 13 priests and 10 deacons. The ceremony was held at Rushoroza Cathedral headquarters of Kabale Diocese in Kabale town on Saturday.

“Avoid situations of being doubted in front of God and his people. You are instructed to be men of wisdom rooted in faith. Never lose hope but preach the word of God and always remember to fulfil your calling to priesthood. Let your preaching strengthen the building of the church of Christ. Restrain your bodies against committing sin and remain clear representatives of Jesus Christ,” Bishop Rubaramira said.

He reminded the ordained priests and deacons to always remember that they were chosen to serve and not to be served, and asked them to keep their eyes focused on Jesus Christ for spiritual renewal and blessings.

The ordained priests included Syrus Aharizira from Makiro parish, Sostine Mugisha from Muko parish, Ayebazibwe Cyril Arthur from Karujanga parish, John Bosco Magezi from Rubanda parish, Ivan Ndamira from Mutolere parish, Venansio Twesigye from Rwengiri parish, Tom Twinomugisha from St Luke Muhanga parish, Maridadi Anakelati from Rutenga parish, Prosper Turihamwe from Machuro parish, Sostini Turyasingura from Rubanda parish, Adon Aturinde from Nyakishenyi parish, Justus Turyatunga from Rubanda parish and Niwagaba Deusdedit from Rushoroza parish.

The ordained deacons included Demiano Ampureire, David Niwayinamani, Derrick Matsiko, Gerald Nsengiyumva, John Borris Nahamya, Godwin Ainembabazi, Ivan Byamugisha, James Byomuhangi, Moses Niwahereza and Pius Orishemeza.

The ordination ceremony coincided with the 60 years celebrations of the existence of Kabale Diocese, and Bishop Rubaramira asked Christians to pray for peace and development in the diocese and also pray for the bishop-elect of Kabale Diocese Msgr Bonaventure Bosco Gubazire whose consecration has been scheduled for October 3.He also asked Christians to get renewed as they celebrate 60 years of the existence of their diocese.

“As you celebrate the 60 years of Kabale diocese, learn to be humble and avoid temptations because this is what God wants from you. Keep the lamp of Christ lighting in your homes and work places. Always pray for each other and strengthen church service in your localities,” Bishop Rubaramira said.

The Minister of Health Dr Chris Baryomunsi represented President Museveni at the ordination ceremony that was witnessed by Finance Minister Henry Musasizi and some members of parliament from Kigezi sub-region, as well as local and civic leaders.

‘The mission of evangelism is a call on social economic transformation, hard work discipline and respect for the values that hold communities and families together. We appreciate the zeal and the dedication focused to the humanitarian cause of transforming communities physically and spatially. We all have a part to play and we must be determined to be patriotic Ugandans that are morally upright. I congratulate the people who are being ordained today to serve the people of God. Priesthood is service to God and he expects you to serve with wisdom, skill, knowledge and humility,’ President Museveni said in the speech read for him by Dr Baryomunsi.

He added that although Uganda has gone through a number of challenges, God has seen it through and we are at a moment of working hard to see that the people of Uganda overcome poverty right from their households through getting involved in gainful employment. He further said that Kabale diocese has managed to make it to the diamond jubilee due to its commitment to cause visible changes amongst the people.

‘The NRM leadership has put in place policy initiatives, and measures that can enable our people to overcome poverty and many who have participated are no longer poor. The youth have been skilled through presidential initiatives in the central region and other regions through the presidential skilling hubs and other people have been boosted with finances in their saccos, emyooga and PDM all geared towards causing a fundamental transformation in people’s livelihoods. We have also continued to advocate for regional integration to cause a massive change and ability to strengthen our selves in terms of advocacy for services resources and markets. All that our people produce will need a bigger market beyond Uganda and Africa,’ President Museveni said.