Oliver Mbekeka made history earlier this week, becoming the first female head coach of a Ugandan top flight men’s team. The Lugazi FC tactician took the reins after the club decided to sack Sadick Ssempigi following a poor start to their maiden Uganda Premier League season.
She is is not new to pioneering,having also become the first woman to be an assistant coach in the UPL,still at Lugazi,after being named Ssempigi’s number two in June this year.
She is also now the first female coach to win a UPL game,after Sam Ssemugugu’s first half header proved enough for Lugazi to shock high flying Express FC on Tuesday.The history doesn’t stop there as in the process,she became the first Lugazi FC coach to win a UPL match.
She follows in the footsteps of Kenya’s Jackline Juma, who just last month became the first woman to lead a men’s top flight team in Africa after her appointment as head coach at the Kenya Premier League’s FC Talanta.
So who exactly is Mbekeka and how has she arrived where she has?Oliver Amani Mbekeka was born in Uganda on 22nd August 1979.She is widely regarded as one of the best female players the Uganda Crested Cranes team has ever had and was part of the first Golden Generation of Ugandan women’s football alongside the likes of Annet Nakimbugwe and Faridah Bulega.
Standing at a diminutive 5″3′,she played as a forward and was famed for her clever creativity and fearsome finishing.She was also the captain of the national team.
She starred for a number of clubs, such as Uganda’s Kampala United Women FC,She Corporate FC and City Stars FC. She also played abroad, exporting her talents to DR Congo’s Source de Kivu and OCL City, as well as Rwanda’s APR.
She first came to prominence while playing for the late Rebecca “Mama Baker” Kazibwe’s Kampala United Women FC in the late nineties, earning a call up to the national team, then known as the She Kobs.
Mbekeka has the distinction of having featured for two different national teams,first being capped by Uganda’s senior team in 2000,before switching allegiance to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2004.This came about after Uganda withdrew from the 2004 CAF African Women’s Championship qualification campaign.
Mbekeka had debuted for the national team at the 2000 CAF African Women’s Championship tournament,scoring an 89th minute winner in Uganda’s 2-1 comeback victory against French island Réunion.She also took part in Uganda’s qualification campaign for the 2002 CAF African Women’s Championship,netting the second in the Crested Cranes’ 2-2 draw with Ethiopia.
In 2004,the Crested Cranes were due to play Malawi in the Preliminary Round of qualifiers for the 2004 CAF African Women’s Championship. The match up never took place, as Uganda withdrew from the competition. Frustrated and yet determined to make her mark on the international stage, Mbekeka and team mate Annet Nakimbugwe moved to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
There, they became naturalized citizens and took on the names Oliva Amani for Mbekeka and Annette Nshimire for Nakimbugwe. They subsequently featured for DR Congo at the 2006 FIFA Under 20 World Championships, starting matches against the United States, France and Argentina as DR Congo finished bottom of Group D.
The two would also go on to represent the senior women’s national team of the Democratic Republic of Congo at the 2006 African Women’s Championships in Nigeria.
Mbekeka moved into coaching upon the conclusion of her playing career,and is currently in possession of a CAF “B” License coaching certificate.She previously filled the head coach roles at Lady Doves FC of the FUFA Women Super League and the Uganda Under-20 Women’s National Team.
She was appointed head coach of Masindi-based Lady Doves FC in August 2018.Although she signed a two year deal, she parted ways with the club just a year later, having lost two finals; the FUFA Women Elite League and FUFA Women’s Cup, despite having a star-studded squad.
However, her departure was also reported to have been caused in part by a falling out with the higher ups at the club over their interference in the team selection process. This line of argument is supported by the fact that Mbekeka memorably went AWOL at some point that season.
Mbekeka was then also as the fitness coach of the women’s senior national team the Crested Cranes,and in January 2020 became the head coach of the Under-20 Women’s national team the Queen Cranes. She had previously been appointed Edward Kaziba’s top assistant for the same role back in 2017.
In October 2023,Mbekeka was named as one of two assistants on interim head coach Charles Ayiekho Lukula’s technical team for the Crested Cranes. This technical team was in charge for Uganda’s 3-2 aggregate defeat to Cameroon in the qualifiers for the Olympics, and this arrangement ended with the appointment of Sheryl Botes the next month.
She was added to predecessor Ssempigi’s backroom staff as the top assistant,perhaps in anticipation of her promotion to head honcho,in July this year,culminating in her assumption of the Lugazi top job this week.
From Mbekeka’s background story,it becomes obvious that she possesses the pedigree to succeed as a head coach.She is endowed with abundant knowledge and understanding of the game,and the future appears to be bright for her.She is the furthest thing from a token hire,but is instead somebody who has,through ability,grit and perseverance,earned her shot.
It remains to be seen how her tenure at lowly Lugazi transpires but if she can continue to grind out results such as this week’s win over Express, she will continue to fit her role as the protagonist of this iconic story.
