KAMPALA, Jan. 13 (Agencies)Uganda won the 34th CECAFA (Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations) Senior Challenge Cup Tuesday evening after a hard fought 1-0 victory over Harambee Stars of Kenya at Kampala’s Mandela Stadium in Namboole.

"We are happy with this sweet victory after many years," Uganda's skipper Andy Mwesigwa told the Chinese Xinhua news agency in an interview after the match. Uganda's Scottish coach Bobby Williamson praised his team for the good display.

Uganda scored a total of 16 goals and only conceded one in the two-week tournament. Uganda defeated last year’s finalist, Rwanda 4-0 in the quarterfinals. Sports watchers see the win by Uganda as a breath of fresh air in the games life in Uganda which had seen a decline in soccer popularity. “European teams have been taking over in Uganda, you find more supporters for Man-U (Manchester United) than for our local team, we needed this win to bring life back into the game.” Sulaiman Mwanje an official of Express FC, a local Ugandan club said.

Kenya's coach Francis Kimanzi said although they had lost, it was a good experience and good preparation ahead of preparations for the 2010 World Cup/Africa Nations Cup qualifying campaign.

"We played a good game, but it was not our day," Kimanzi told Xinhua after the fateful game.

In an earlier game played on Tuesday, Tanzania scored through Jerson Tegete, Mrisho Ngassa and Danny Mrwanda to beat Burundi 3-2in a third and fourth play-off. Abdallah Irambona and Jaffer Jumapili netted for Burundi.

The champions Uganda walked away with 30,000 U.S. dollars, while Kenya pocketed 20,000 dollars and third placed Burundi bagged 10,000 dollars.