Kampala, Uganda: Former SC Villa President Eng. Immanuel Ben Misagga has launched a blistering missile directed at the club’s leadership, accusing them of orchestrating a “rigged and exclusionary” election process to install Omar Ahmed Hussein, popularly known as Mandela, as club president without opposition.
Speaking during a press conference on Wednesday, Misagga described the club’s electoral process as a carefully engineered scheme designed to lock out challengers and cement what he called a clique that has turned Uganda’s most decorated football club into a “personal estate.”
“They have rigged the electoral process with a Shs100 million nomination fee. This is not leadership, it is a deliberate attempt to block competition and maintain the big-man syndrome,” Misagga charged.
The outspoken former president said the decision by the club’s electoral commission chairperson, Brian Kajubi, to declare Mandela unopposed exposes what he described as the “collapse of governance” within the historic club.
“Yesterday the clique announced itself as the new administration,” Misagga said. “But you cannot impose leadership on a club whose lifeblood is its fans.”
Election process under fire
SC Villa has been embroiled in controversy in recent weeks after its electoral commission suddenly set the presidential nomination fee at Shs100 million, a figure critics say effectively bars most potential candidates from contesting.
With no other aspirants picking nomination forms before the deadline, the commission declared Mandela the sole candidate, paving the way for him to retain the presidency unopposed for a five-year term.
Misagga, a diehard fan of SC Villa, compared the fee to Uganda’s national presidential nomination requirement, arguing that the club’s process has become more restrictive than the country’s democratic system.
“If President Museveni allows Ugandans to contest against him for just Shs20 million, how can a football club demand Shs100 million?” he asked, insisting that his opposition is not motivated by personal ambition.
“I am not offering myself for the club presidency. If I wanted to stand, the money is not an issue. The issue is principle,” he said, adding, “Villa has been turned into a cash cow”
Misagga accused a small circle of club administrators of running SC Villa as a private enterprise while excluding ordinary supporters from key decisions. “For years I watched in silence as a few individuals reduced this great institution to their personal cash cow,” he said.
Among his grievances is the alleged lack of transparency surrounding Shs3.4 billion in compensation funds awarded to the club following legal disputes related to Villa Park.
According to Misagga, the money is reportedly sitting in a fixed deposit account controlled by a small group of administrators with little accountability to the wider fan base.
“Today, our Shs3.4 billion is said to be sitting somewhere while our fans struggle. No fan knows how it is being managed,” he said, arguing that the funds should instead be used to establish a supporters’ SACCO that would empower fans and strengthen the club’s financial base.
Misagga recounts his Villa legacy
In a lengthy account of his journey with the club, Misagga positioned himself as one of the key figures behind SC Villa’s revival during some of its darkest periods.
He traced his involvement back to the early 2000s when he served as the club’s national fans coordinator and mobilised funding to take a youthful Villa side to the 2004 CECAFA Club Championship in Tanzania.
The team, which included then little-known goalkeeper Denis Onyango, went on to win the tournament in what Misagga described as the beginning of Villa’s revival following the 2003 match-fixing scandal that had shaken Ugandan football.
Misagga would later return from Zambia in 2014 to lead the club at a time he says it was on the verge of collapse.
Under his leadership, Misagga claims that the club cleared accumulated debts, stabilised operations and reignited fan mobilisation across the country.
Villa went on to win the Uganda Cup in the 2014–2015 season, the club’s first major trophy in more than a decade, while also returning to continental football in the CAF Confederation Cup.
Misagga also claims to have secured the land title for the club’s Lukuli property and strengthened its fan structures through nationwide mobilisation drives.
Governance battle
Speaking passionately about the club, Misagga said his current fight is aimed at restoring what he called proper governance rather than pursuing a return to power. He demanded the reinstatement of club statutes previously ratified by the national football federation to guarantee broader participation of supporters in decision-making.
“I want a corporate governance structure where every fan, regardless of their background or education, has a say in how this club is run,” he said.
Despite the sharp criticism directed at Mandela and the club’s leadership, Misagga insisted his intervention is about protecting the future of a club he says risks sliding deeper into internal conflict. “This is not about Misagga,” he said. “It is about rescuing SC Villa from the grave these people are digging for it.”
If you would like your article/opinion to be published on Uganda’s most authoritative news platform, send your submission on: [email protected]. You can also follow DailyExpress on WhatsApp and on Twitter (X) for realtime updates.
