Basketball in Africa

by Sande Bashaija
Kampala

FORMER National Basketball League Most Valuable Player (MVP) Wilbrod Oketcho escaped death but is bedridden at Mulago Hospital after he was shot at by robbers in Ntinda, a Kampala suburb on Wednesday night.

Oketcho, who led Sadolin Power to the national championship in 2000, was attacked after he had entered his gate at around 9 p.m.

The unidentified men asked him to surrender his belongings that included a mobile phone and wallet but they seemed to have another motive.

They told him to sit down, made a thorough check on him and made off with everything.
"As I tried to get back to my feet, one of the guys turned and shot at me," Oketcho explained yesterday.

The bullet ruptured the left fibular (bone inside the thigh) but Oketcho said he was feeling better after undergoing operation on Thursday afternoon.
"At least I am alive. I just hope to get better by the day," he noted. The injury had earlier been feared to be grave but doctors said there was less to be worried about.
"The fracture is simple. It's only the wound that may take long to heal," Michael Oling, an intern physician, who visited Oketcho in Ward 6C revealed. There is hope Oketcho can play basketball again after proper recovery.
"He may need at least two years before playing again. He just has to keep his weight under check in order to reduce the pressure on the joints and bones," Oling added. His injury is a big loss to Sadolin Power.