PATRICK BITATURE ... TO ROAR LIKE A SIMBA

We have lost the greatest Ugandan entrepreneur of our time, Mr Amirali Karmali, more popularly known as Mzee Mukwano. I have known Mzee Mukwano for more than 40 years and most of what I am today is due to him. And I am not alone. "He has helped countless people through school – as he did me. Helped countless more in business – as he did me. And he has been a steadfast friend and source of support to countless more – as he was to me.... I first met Mukwano around about 1977. My mother was the secretary for the chief of operations at Uganda Airlines, a man I knew only as Hamid. Mukwano had come to charter the Uganda Airlines’ Hercules plane and I happened to be around the office then. He was a short man, an unassuming man, but clearly a serious businessman who would charter the plane to bring in goods that were in high demand here. He run a popular whole sale shop in Nakasero – Egesa Commercial Agencies, a beehive of activity and the go-to place for anythin...

Recently I was at Makerere University to attend a wedding ceremony. I hadn’t been on the university’s grounds in a while. I was shocked at how run down Mary Stuart and Lumumba Halls were. They are in need of serious work. These thoughts were reawakened with the recent launch of the coffee table book “Beyond the Reeds and Bricks” promoted by the tourism ministry, the cross cultural foundation of Uganda and the European Union Delegation. The book which is aimed at the protection of historical sites and buildings in Kampala, Entebbe and Jinja, is a moving collection of pictures of buildings and sites we know, but probably take for granted when we pass them as we go about our business. "Entebe za Mugula in Entebbe, Mackay’s Cave, the post office in Entebbe, the Stanbic Bank Branch in Jinja, Hamu Mukasa’s house in Mengo, the main building at Makerere , the Bahai Temple, Kibuli mosque and many other sites have pride of place among the 60 pictures in this book, which is ...