Sunday 20 December 2020

EZRA BUNYENYEZI: A golfer, and a fine gentleman

 

Bunyenyezi (left) with colleauge
Kiprono Kittony, Chairman Radio Africa Group
 and CEO Capital Realtime Ltd. COURTESY PHOTO


UPDATED (New Video)

EZRA Bunyenyezi passed on Friday, December 18, 2020 at Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi aged 76.

If the Uganda Golf Club (UGC) at Kitante was a country, they would have now declared a month of national mourning!

Before we get there, this was supposed to be an obituary, but I felt I had inadequate information for the task, thus the format I will adopt. This is actually a call, for an obituary. 

I tried to look through my twitter feed for details on the death of the icon, got just one or two mentions in Uganda. The rest were from Rwanda and Kenya. Felt Sad!

If journalist-turned-golfer Mark Namanya gets some time, I pray he writes a proper Obituary, and I will re-publish it here.

I first met Bunyenyezi sometime about 1990-1991. I was one of a handful of a new generation of sports writers then, who was able to venture outside football - the staple food then.

I was to have registered for the newly introduced Mass Communication degree at Makerere a year earlier, but somehow did not do so! 

To make up for the mistake, I literally abandoned the English, literature and French that Makerere thought I should study, and went full time into reporting for the national newspaper New Vision whenever I could. I focused on sports, especillay the ones that had little coverage then......golf, cricket, athletics, volleyball, table tennis.

Golf was easy, because my dad was a golfer in the 70s and 80s when his pockets were deeper.  I actually played a round or two with caddies at Tororo golf course in the eighties.

Golfers are generally considered snobbish, especially when talking about their game, but since I knew them, it was easy for me to have the confidence as a 20 year old to walk into the intimidating UGC at Kitante. There, Uganda's 'elite' gathered to hit a white ball around the course, as they discussed business deals.

Bunyenyezi had deep pockets, was a businessman, socialite, entrepreneur, confident, big hearted, positive.... so little wonder he was soon elected head of the Golf Union.  On top of all this, the flamboyant golfer also owned the then very successful and pioneering Uganda Travel Bureau.

Golf has long been known as a gentleman’s sport, and he was the perfect gentleman. He liked the fine things in life. God blessed him with it all, including discipline. 

Former minister Amanya Mushega, a recent convert to golf, recently noted in his controversial NTV interview that " It is important for leaders to do some sport. It teaches you three things; it helps you manage and control body and mind;  you learn the umpire's word is final, and it tells you the passage of time." (click for Mushega interview)

Bunyenyezi (RIP)


When he became Golf Union boss, he did not take journalists for granted. He was one of the first to realize the importance of publicity and the role journalists play in promoting the game. He always made sure we - one or two golf writers - had a field day during, for example, the Uganda Open. 

He would personally check on you to make sure you are comfortable, you have had a meal coupon (meals at the UGC cost an arm an leg), a T-shirt, and a drink, and transport back. He would commandeer any car to get you back to office...... The kind of thing John Waigo continued to do for us at the 19th hole, years later.

Bunyenyezi's ability to connect to the powers in government and private sector, raised the profile of Ugandan golf. 

By then I was covering the great Dedan Kagonyera (RIP), one of my new friends at the club, as he dethroned legend Sadi Onito. 

My excitement sometimes cropped into my writing, and I recall getting a rebuke from my Sports Editor David Sseppuuya for focussing daily only on Dedan, who was anyway set to win eventually. 

Ugandan golf went back to old mode when Bunyenyezi handed over, and eventually left his Ugandan base to spread his wings in Kenya and Rwanda. I continue to get time for golf occasionally, and therefore will miss him very much.

Bunyenyezi is survived with his wife of 40 years Chantal and three children Gad, Keza and Nshuti.

Before he left his main base, I had risen to become sports editor, and I am sure I edited this article (bottom), when the country lost another Uganda Golf Union president. 

It was written by Namanya, a reporter I had signed 'for a big transfer fee' from the Daily Monitor.

I struggled to trace this article and others, and pray in future that New Vision gives unlimited access to their archives for veterans like us who worked 20+years there. It will be good for their product actually, as it will show how rich their archives are.

READ THE ARTICLE BOTTOM

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VIDEO - TRIBUTES TO EZRA AT MEMORIAL IN KAMPALA

 

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AUGUST 20, 2002 (NEW VISION, UGANDA)

Uganda: Golf Was Toko's Other Love

By Mark Namanya

BRIG. Gad Wilson Toko was better known to many for his Air Force and political career, but those close to him will also remember him for his love of the game of golf.

Even politicians have a soft side, and to Toko, golf was it. He distinguished himself by being witty and with a high sense of humour - the characteristic that makes one a complete golfer.

He also advocated for the maintenance of high golfing standards - ethical and otherwise. He often teased members at Kitante Golf Club about the high standards the club had when he, together with 'Sir' Richard Kaijuka and Ezra Bunyenyezi were at the helm of the club.

It could be said that it was a mistake to have him elected president of the Uganda Golf Union, because that meant the local game's best MC was lost to management, or worse, he had to take up both roles.

The handicap 16 golfer was, on his return from exile elected golf union's president in 1999 replacing George Egaddu.

Before going to exile in the 80's, Toko had been an active golfer and was handicap 12.

Although never the most successful of golfers, Toko's unique administrative qualities improved the standards of UGU.

"He streamlined development programme to the youths who hold the key to the future; something which was a bright idea," said Bunyenyezi, Toko's close friend.

He died serving the game on Sunday.

Toko's death is the latest in a series of disaster to the golfing fraternity.

This year has claimed former national champion Juma Jaffar, Emmanuel Mwondha, George Semafumu and Juma Omony.

The late Toko was going to play golf at the Jinja Open when he perished in a tragic motor accident.

Toko's political background as a politician and a defacto vice president in the late Gen. Okello Lutwa military junta brought him controversy.

But the times he rose to speak as UGU chief at various events, Toko left audiences cracking in laughter.

📌 See related story ✳️👇👇👇

Kenya mourns Bunyenyezi

 

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