NAMED! Uganda’s top stingy men & women revealed (Part 2)

In the book of Proverbs 20:21, an inheritance gained hurriedly at the beginning will not be blessed in the end. Quick money is often thought of as a blessing – but often is more like a curse. This proverb is all about warning us of the dangers of quickly gaining money and wealth without having the character to deal with what we receive. This reading teaches people to get money and guard it safely and jealously, so being stingy on your money is not a crime at all. Stingy men in Kampala are very rich and they know how to protect their money/wealth.

Remember, the stingy shall inherit the earth. The generous shall die with regrets. Following this some men in Uganda formed an association and wrote a constitution to protect the rights of the stingy men.

Members of the Stingy Men Association Uganda (SMAU) call themselves ‘Stingers’ for there is no pain than to deny other people the gains of our sweat. Not all the members written about hereunder are members of association but they behave in a similar manner. For a person to qualify as a Member of SMAU, he is not supposed to pledge at weddings extravagantly, dish out free money, give transport refunds anyhow and spend on luxurious things. In our part one, we bring you Ugandan men who are frugal with their money and they carry no blame at all.

JOHN NJOROGE

He is a self-styled media consultant who does everything in line with private communications that include private Investigations, research, strategic analysis and digital security training. He is very eloquent and this in most cases lands him jobs of moderation for companies. He earns some good money but when it comes to spending, he is in his own league. He piggy-rides on his loaded friends who he tells stories from across the world to keep them busy. It is that piggy-backing that helps him to go to good places where they sell food and drinks expensively. If there is anyone who can confess that Njoroge spends a dime on them, they can come up. He is so stingy that he sometimes forgets and picks money from the left pocket and keeps it in the right one even when he is hungry.

TONY OWANA

The grey haired man Tony Owana has done almost everything God sent him to do on earth but his money is his money. Having for long practiced both print and electronic journalism, Owana is ranked among Uganda’s most experienced and history-knowledgeable journalists. Regarding print, he edited Sunrise, a weekly newspaper famous for its insightful analysis before defecting to Red Pepper whose upcountry section he edited for a good number of years. After Namanve, Owana who for many years was a pioneer panelist of radio talk shows (like Simba FM’s Olutindo) was hired by Kin Kariisa whose NBS TV had just started political talk shows. Owana popularly moderated a show called Barometer on which he hosted big political names like Col Kizza Besigye and others. After NBS, he joined UBC where he was stopped by the TV Manager Nada Andersen. He is currently at Vision Group minting millions of Ugandan shillings. He is so mean that when COVID times became tense and taxi fares were increased to transport few passengers, he bought a bike. Though he postures like a person doing exercises, those who know Owana are aware that he has no calories and fat to shed. Tony Owana @war as your column in Red Pepper was titled, we salute you for fulfilling all the articles of SMAU.

MIKE BAKETUNGA

He is a young billionaire whose interests are in the transport business. He owns a fleet of over 100 trailers that ply trade between Mombasa Eastern DR Congo and South Sudan. He is very loaded but for decades he drives a small saloon car (KIkumi). He had an old one in the UAH series which he replaced with the UBD series. About three years ago, he bought a Mercedes Benz 350 ML and cruised it for months. He sold it off after raising complaints about how it consumes a lot of fuel to whoever knew him. One time he drove it to Mbarara and nearly looked for a lift on a carrier vehicle to bring it back to Kampala so that he would not consume another full tank. He is very comfortable while driving his small saloon car on the highway despite criticisms from his brothers and friends. Until recently Michael would not know what takes place in the big hotels like Kampala Serena Hotel and Sheraton. He at first could not see any reason to part with 60k for a single meal yet this would last him a week in his small joints.

GEN PROSCOVIA NALWEYISO

The elderly Lt Gen Proscovia Nalweyiso—the highest-ranking female officer in the Uganda—was recently retired from the army. She has served as the President’s Private Secretary in charge of classified expenditures. That is an undisputed fact and she is the one to whom Museveni sends all manner of people that need to be facilitated or financially assisted or supported in any way yet they aren’t comfortable this becoming public knowledge. This places Nalweyiso in a position to handle hundreds of billions of shillings in every financial year. But the well groomed lady from Mukono correctly knows this is not her money but to be spent as assigned by the Principal. She doesn’t even spend it on herself.

During one the recent presidential campaigns, a story is told how one of the renowned event promoters and organisers chanced to peep into one of the bags where Nalweyiso keeps Museveni’s money.

This gentleman was so overwhelmed and requested at least to part with one bundle of Shs20m in 10000 denominations. Those who were nearby told us that they have never seen furious Gen. Nalweyiso react in the manner she did. The gentleman later apologized and Gen Nalweyiso offered to give him some Shs50000 in her own money, not that of the president’s errands.

She has a modest home and a few projects (goats, chicken, rabbits…Banana plantations etc) to make her survive but not materially rich like some soldiers even below her rank. She has loyally served Museveni in this role and has never leaked a single secret for many years since the departure of powerful PPS Amelia Kyambadde.

REV. BAKALUBA MUKASA

The 55-year-old Anglican priest, who has previously served as a Member of Parliament and pushed out of by electorates in 2016 is now the Mukono LV elect. The newly elected Mukono District chairperson who owns huge chunks of land in Nakisunga and Koome Island plus several primary and secondary schools is very stingy. He rarely appears at his businesses for fear of bumping into people to ask for favors. The said businesses are run by his wife. In the recently concluded campaigns, Bakaluba was saved by the NUP wave. He is very wise, in order not to spend money during campaigns he piggy-rode on Hon. Bakireke Nambooze. She even baptized him politically and renamed him Balabye Ekuubo. It is this basically that helped him to beat the incumbent Andrew Senyonga and NRM’s Hajji Haruna Semakula.

ERIAS LUKWAGO

The Lord Mayor learnt saving in school and not expenditure. He is lucky that as a Lord Mayor he is always served wherever he goes. He rarely forks any money from his pocket to clear bills. However before he became a Lord Mayor, he could only get money from his left pocket and transfer it to the right. While at his office in the law firm, he used to instruct his people to buy food for him from the company money. Unlike other loaded guys who rush to buy posh rides like Toyota Land Cruiser (mpenkoni), Lukwago had settled with his old vehicles. Before he got a government vehicle, he was driving an old BMW UAL series and later upgraded to a maroon Toyota Prado UAS series.

ANDREW M. MWENDA

He is the founding Managing Editor of The Independent, Uganda’s premier current affairs news magazine. Before founding The Independent, he worked as General Manager of KFM, a radio station owned by Monitor Publications Limited (MPL) which he transformed from a little-known station into Kampala’s Number 1 radio station through rebranding and re-programming. He also used to do assignments in the foreign countries and would be paid in dollars. By Ugandan standards he is a loaded man who drives posh rides around town and stays in the up market suburb of Luzira. However, for those who know Mwenda very well, he can only spend on himself. A story is told that even when it is due to pay his workers and he has the money, he will first use it to generate some small profit as they wait. Unlike other loaded and pompous men who splash dime on the babes, he rarely hangs out with them and makes him qualify to be in SMAU.

IDD BASAJJABALABA

He runs a string of his father’s businesses and he is also a loaded young man. First of all he is not extravagant. Unlike his loaded friends who are always on the plane for holidays abroad, he opts to keep the money. He operates on a tight daily budget. He recently bought a Toyota Harrier new model (Kahundu) for his wife but he fuels it to limit the distance she is supposed to cover on a daily basis. He sometimes sends her to a fuel station and they fill it for some good days. He also loads her phones with monthly bundles. He sends money sparingly.

HAJJI SOWED

Tycoon Sowed is the man behind the investment of Africa Fuel stations. He really knows the essence of not spending anyhow but saving his money to put it to good use. His friends will tell you that sometimes he fears to spend on himself. He is so stingy that all the money he generates goes to his bank accounts. Ironically, he is always crying of poverty yet his workers in the real estate world are constantly working. (TO BE CONTINUED…DO YOU KNOW ANY MEMBER OF SMAU OR THOSE BEHAVING LIKE SMAU MEMBERS INCLUDING WOMEN? CALL/TEXT/WHATSAPP 0777959024 OR EMAIL REDPEPPERTIPS@GMAIL.COM