Musanze at fault for player licence/ID irregularities

AT the start of the 2012/13 National Football league, newly promoted club Musanze just like any other top flight clubs submitted their list of players who will feature in this season’s league to Rwanda’s football body, Ferwafa.Musanze recruited heavily in bid avoid relegation after just one season back in the Primus National Football League. Some of the key figures players who were recruited include former Police duo of Charles Kawuma and Alimansi Kadogo.They have made a dream start to the season, starting with a 1-all draw against Isonga; beat Etincelles 1-0; beat Muhanga 2-0 before playing a goalless draw against defending champions APR.After four rounds of matches, the Musanze-based side is tied on eight points with APR and Police and third on the league table standing.However, as the season started, there is one player, who caught the eye of every fan. Hertier Manizabayo, the attacking midfielder from Musanze has impressed whoever has seen play with his enterprising performances.And it didn’t take long before his display attracted the attention of Amavubi Stars head coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojovic, who included him in his provisional 32-man squad for the FIFA international match against Namibia.However, everyone was left astonished to realize that Manizabayo snubbed the call because he wanted to play for the national team using his real name - DJUMA BASUNYA.This prompted me to dig deep for the reason behind this name changing thing after all Basunya was given a national identity card with names of another Rwandan called Manizabayo.When Musanze hosted APR last weekend, Basunya or Manizabayo as his Ferwfa license IDs him, was nowhere to be seen on the match-day. When we asked, some Musanze officials, said, ‘the player lost a relative in Uganda and he gone for burial’. That was how Manizabayo disappeared and never appeared again.However, a few years back before Mukungwa was renamed Musanze; a real Heritier Manizabayo used to play for this club and even helped the team to earn promotion to the top flight league in 2010. I talked to the 20-year old player, who studies at ESIR and had temporarily quit football to concentrate on his education since he is in his final year.Although some people are trying to hide the truth and put blame on the Ugandan-born player, who was given Rwandan citizenship illegally, Manizabayo’s licence had irregularities even before they were relegated during the 2010-11 season because at that time it is indicated that he was born on 01/01/1990 in Musanze and got his ID from Muhoza in Musanze.The current licence issued by the national football governing body, Ferwafa, indicates that Manizabayo was born on 12/06/1994 and secured his ID (1199480018026091) in Muhoza.The real Manizabayo, who is a student at ESIR has his real ID numbered 1199080107416074, issued in Muhoza.Even though Basunya is now back in his native Uganda, truth should be revealed and whoever was involved in getting him the Rwandan ID illegally must be brought to book. Using my reliable sources at St. Mary’s Kitende in Uganda, Basunya was approached by Musanze officials to play for them this season and being a Ugandan, and yet Musanze wanted badly his services, and be able to escape the foreign players rule (3-8), they found means of securing an ID for him.Every official has distanced himself from this footballer including the chairman of the club Emmanuel Rutaremara, who also happens to be the Executive Secretary of Musanze District.Though Rutaremera has put a charge on Djuma Basunya for possessing illegal documents, sources blame his office for the illegal authorization of the identity card in order to satisfy the interest of the club which is under his management.Ferwafa, without realizing that there was player with similar names, who featured for the club two years ago before they were relegated, went ahead and issued another licence without verification of all documents presented by the club.This case is one of the many happening within the local clubs especially those owned by districts that use fake IDs and licenses. The district’s role is to facilitate the acquisition of Rwandan IDs for foreign players and once that is done, acquiring Ferwafa license becomes easier.If Ferwafa secretariat cannot verify these licenses or is not in position to crosscheck with their database, then what are they doing in as far as managing of the national league is concerned?This is why you will find clubs like Espoir, Nyamagabe, Etincelles, Muhanga and Musanze having foreign players mostly Congolese with Rwandan IDs.This is not how Rwandan football should be managed. If we have decided to rely on real Rwandan talents, let us stick on that and only do everything possible to make it work the way we want.Now with that this case unearthed (because many are hidden even with the knowledge of football officials), what is the federation going to do about in order to stop future similar cases?Musanze has acknowledged their fault but put the blame on the player (Basunya) whom they helped cross back to Uganda without revealing the truth in order to protect Rutaremara’s job.If found guilty, Musanze may face stern punishments from Ferwafa but I wish this case would not just die a natural death and be buried under the carpet like many which have gone the same way.