Skip to main content

THE MUKWANO I KNEW


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 anything and everything at the time.

I was just out of O-Level at that time. He encouraged me to study hard and that he would pay my fees in the UK when I passed my A-level.

Meanwhile I was hustling the best I could to put food on the table for my family, having lost my father a few years before. Between school and trying to make a living I bumped into Mzee Mukwano often and saw how he run his business at close quarters. We had numerous conversations about business and life.

Before he went into trade he was a truck driver, ferrying cargo from Mombasa to Uganda and on to Congo, Rwanda and Sudan. I think he knew every road and had many stories to tell about his adventures driving up and down the region.

When Amin expelled the Asians he stayed around, not only survived but thrived as trader. He spoke fluent Rutooro, Luganda and Swahili, that was the edge that set him apart in business, and probably kept him safe during those hairy days, where it was not advisable to be a success. An Asian success at that.

He had a red Mitsubishi for a long time, which he drove himself around in.

I eventually completed my A-Level and was admitted to Makerere University to do B.Com. I reminded Mzee Mukwano about his promise and he gave me the greenlight to apply to a university of my choice. With the postal service then, correspondence between the universities of my choice and myself took forever. It was not until a year into my course at Makerere that Mukwano gave me £10,000 in cash as my tuition to go and study.

That was barely enough for a year at the London School of Economics where I wanted to go, but was more than enough to see me though a two year course at the London School of Accountancy.
When I returned, I went to visit him with what I thought were good gifts to express my gratitude for what he had done for me. Right before my eyes he distributed the gifts among his workers. He said I owed him nothing and that he was glad I was able to make my way in the UK.

He was at the time about to open his factory. I asked whether I could be of assistance. He put me in charge of cash collections with the warning that I should not get involved in any corrupt dealings. 

There was a shortage of soap and cooking oil at the time and some people would get allocation chits sell them at a premium and make money that way. As a result the grateful buyers would often live sizable tips which we would log as part of the sales.

I reported a surplus one day – that we had earned more than we had sold and Mzee Mukwano was not amused, he insisted that the books must balance. That was the end of the tips.

After four months Mzee Mukwanao decided I was wasted in the cash office, that I should break out on my own. A cigarette smoker all the time I knew him, he got the silver foil from a cigarette packet and on the back of it, instructed a business partner in Dubai to give me $20,000 and sent me on my way.

This was 1988. I had wangled a deal with DHL to supply them with calculators, the 14-digit ones because of our currency issues. I made my way to Dubai and found the business partner, a textiles merchant. He refused to give me cash and forced $20,000 worth of textiles on me.

I called Mzee Mukwano to complain, his advice, “If you want calculators and the man gives you textiles, sell the textiles and buy the calculators.” With my brand new accountancy credentials this had not occurred to me.

"Never in a hurry. He was rarely, if ever fazed. External appearances meant nothing to him. His humility grew the wealthier he became...

Since 1995 he ceded control of the flagship Mukwano Industries to his son and went off to build another fortune as a tea exporter, with tea estates in the west and unrivalled trucking operation. He monitored this from Kampala, though the urban legend was that he had relocated to Fort Portal.
He was my model for his humility, his wisdom, his steadfastness and his compassion.

Mzee Mukwano was 80 and I – he referred to me as Mutabani, shared in only a small part of his life. His visible wealth is only a fraction of his numerous achievements as mentor and sponsor of the many out there like myself.

Two days ago Mzee Mukwano summoned Attorney General William Byaruhanga and I to see him. He sensed the end was near. We bid him farewell.

Rest in Peace Mzee.





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

COME HELP BEAT BACK HIV/AIDS

Uganda has made tremendous strides in containing the AIDS pandemic. For some of us who were around in the 1980s and saw the worst effects of the AIDS pandemic, the way the country has contained the disease is not what we had envisaged back then. Ignorance, stigma and lack of drugs surrounding the disease saw thousands die horrible deaths – wasting away, tortured by opportunistic diseases and being shirked by family and a society out fear.  The doomsayers were projecting a major fall in our population, a collapse of the economy and a total breakdown of social cohesion. That the country is still around and fighting back the disease successfully, could not have been envisaged in those scary days of the 1980s when the disease came into the public conscious. Thankfully rather than sweep the problem under the carpet like many of the neighbouring countries, President Yoweri Museveni led a fight back against AIDS that had at its core widespread dissemination of infor...
Post a Comment
Read more

ARE WE HELPLESS TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT THE CARNAGE ON OUR ROADS?

Recently there was a horrific crash between a passenger bus and sand laden Isuzu truck on the Masaka-Kampala highway. To look at the pictures of the aftermath it is a miracle that only two were killed and 20 injured in the accident, which it is reported was a head-on collision between the two vehicles. We don’t go a week without news of a major accident on our trunk roads. I suspect that a combination of poorly maintained vehicles, improperly trained or inexperienced drivers, driving at break neck speeds are to blame. "A few months ago, there was a suggestion that the new paved roads were not properly designed and therefore causing the accidents, but I think that is a case of poor workmen blaming their tools.... If one was to buy this argument, what about the argument that we had fewer accidents when our roads were pot holed and it would take whole days travelling journeys that now take a few hours? So, we should we go back to our potholed roads? "Accord...
Post a Comment
Read more

GIVE OUR TRAFFIC POLICE A CHANCE

Last week during an investor interaction   Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) officials called on police to stop overriding traffic lights while directing traffic. KCCA argues that the traffic lights are large investment and it makes no sense for police to countermand them. In a classic case of “The importance of the river was not known till it dried up” on Friday the traffic police desisted from directing cars at the traffic lights leading to the worst traffic snarl-up in the city’s history. People were stuck in traffic jams around the city for hours and long into the night. Maybe it was the unhappy coincidence of the traditional Friday traffic and pre-Christmas excitement but without the traffic police directing traffic it was a mess. They made their point. It of course points to the bigger issue of a revamping of Kampala’s road network, which has remained   largely the same since independence but with an exponential increase in cars in the last three...
Post a Comment
Read more

UMEME A RECOGNISED SUCCESS BUT …

  Recently the World Bank did a survey of the power utilities on the continent. Of the 39 utilities surveyed only two, in Uganda – Umeme and in Seychelles, were able to cover their operating costs and capital expenditures – maintenance and expansion of the grid. The report went on to point out that only 19 or about half of the surveyed utilities were able to meet their everyday costs like salaries. Essentially most of our power utilities on the continent are technically bankrupt. This has far reaching ramifications for the industry as a whole. When you, the client, pays your bill, Umeme then passes money up the line to pay the transmission and generation companies. If Umeme does not collect the revenues due to it or does not price the power at an appropriate rate, the pain will be felt up and down the sector. The transmission company would not be able to maintain and extend its network and the generation company would not be able to generate efficiently or build ...
Post a Comment
Read more

WE NEED A BETTER SOLUTION FOR KAMPALA TRAFFIC

I am sure I am not the only one feeling it. Kampala’s traffic is becoming increasingly unbearable. Even the removal of roundabouts around the city seem to have an opposite effect to the intended purpose of easing traffic flow in the city. Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has an ambitious plan of flyovers, underground tunnels and railway transport, which should help the cause, I hope. The snarl ups that we are coming fast accustomed to, are not only an issue of teeth grinding inconvenience but have a real cost on our economy by hampering and increasing the cost of doing business. A recent World Bank report suggests that as an economy, we are losing about sh3trillion annually due to traffic jams. The losses come in form of delayed deliveries, higher fuel consumption and the health consequences of seating in a smoke filled environment. To put this in perspective this is the combined budget of the health, agriculture and ICT ministries in this year’s budget. Or ...
Post a Comment
Read more

REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT CAN BE KEY IN OUR TRANSFORMATION

I have been around long enough to see real estate development, or maldevelopment, lead to the sprawl that is Kampala today. From atop the Skyz Hotel in Naguru, one can see as far as Mukono to the east, Entebbe to the South and Bombo to the north. At night the lights from traffic, streetlights and from residences makes it a sight to behold. But we were here in 1986 when Kampala’s outer limits were Kibuye roundabout, Rubaga, Wandegeya, Ntinda and Nakawa. The NRM did the smart thing and removed restrictions – rent controls, on real estate and spawned a real estate boom that has led to the dramatic expansion of the capital city’s boundaries to what they are today. During the same period the government’s National Housing & Construction Company (NHCC) has not kept pace with private developers, be they individuals or companies developing a few dozen units. "Official statistics suggest that there is a 550,000 deficit of acceptable quality housing in Uganda of ...
Post a Comment
Read more