cover photo: Maurice Kirya
Ugandan singer, Maurice Kirya has decided to defend Ugandan olympics athlete, Julius Ssekitoleko who went missing in Japan last week.
The weightlifter, aged 20 years decided to run away from the hotel in Japan where he was residing with other members of Uganda's official olympics team of this year's olympics.
Maurice Kirya asked people not to harshly judge the young man today through his social media
We should not treat Julius Ssekitoleko like a criminal, he is not. This is an indication or representation of the reality of Ugandan Proffesional athletes. It's not the first time it has happened, won't be the last, it's happening in many other professions too, for good reason...Maurice Kirya
A lot of Ugandans supported what Kirya said and revealed how they would also do the same thing if at all they were also put in Ssekitoleko's shoes.
Why did Julius Ssekitoleko escape
Julius escaped from Izumisano, a city in Japan where team Uganda is currently lodged in a hotel because of several reasons mostly of which are personal.
Before leaving the hotel on Friday morning last week, he left a note behind stating he had gone elsewhere in Japan to find a better life after failing to find good life in Uganda.
The other key reason was because he was stopped from participating in this year's olympics after failing to meet some of the olympics guidelines and therefore was only waiting to come back to Uganda on July 20th.
Given that he knew some people in another city, Nagoya still in Japan, he decided to travel there by train as he escaped from his country mates at the hotel.
He also told them to send all his belongings back to his wife in Uganda such that she can keep them properly as she awaits his return after a long... long time.
Ssekitoleko's dreams get shattered
On Tuesday, the young athlete was found in Japan after police had intensified its operations to find him on request from the Ugandan government through its Embassy in Japan.
He was found in Mie prefecture, a place in Japan some kilometres from Tokyo City and the police found him unharmed without involvement in any criminal activity.
The Japanese police was however confused on who to hand the young man to, either the Embassy or the team back at the hotel. But they said they had no problem with him loitering in Japan as long as his Visa is valid and is not involved in any criminal activity.
But by press time yesterday, the embassy of Japan in collaboration with the government of Uganda had issued a statement about repatriation of Julius as soon as Wednesday.
This was after the State minsiter of foreign affairs, Okello Oryem had met with the Japanese ambassador to Uganda on Monday at the Ministry of Foreign affairs office to dicuss the matter.
