By John V Sserwaniko
After doing barely two years in active government service as Attorney General, high flying city lawyer William Byaruhanga regrets his would-be business time that has been lost in never-ending government bureaucratic procedures and wants to regain his freedom to go about his private legal and real estate businesses. Reliable government sources have told this news website that, out of respect and courteousy, William Byaruhanga (easily ranked among Uganda’s wealthiest lawyers) has been sending emissaries to plead his case to the President, a man he greatly respects as if he is his own father. Indeed Museveni has always reciprocated this profound respect in many ways including comfortably spending nights at Byaruhanga’s country home in Fort Portal sometimes when he goes to Toro/Rwenzori region for official national duties. A couple of times the big man from Rwakitura calls up Byaruhanga for permission to hold his Toro-related consultative retreats from his residence on the outskirts of Fort Portal town. The residence is so posh that sometimes Museveni refers his visiting friendly presidents to fly to Fort Portal and spend nights there. Byaruhanga will subsequently send an invoice to State House for the bill to be cleared. If not at his residence, Museveni or his Presidential guests will, at a cost, lodge out at Mountains of the Moon Hotel which too is owned by Byaruhanga. Inspite of being vastly rich and deeply connected, deeply-spiritual William Byaruhanga remains down to earth and easily approachable by fellow Ugandans regardless of their social strata. This business of holding private retreats at the Fort Portal properties has been a Museveni practice long before even William Byarugaba became AG. In fact this strong relationship, on which William has for years leveraged to vastly succeed in real estate business and legal practice, is actually what resulted into his appointment to cabinet, an assignment he reluctantly agreed to largely out of respect for the 73 year old veteran leader of the NRM party.
DONE MY PART;
We are now impeccably informed that William Byaruhanga, whose performance State House is very impressed with, feels his businesses have greatly suffered as he is away doing government work. “There are for instance many legal deals he would have undertaken which now the law firm Kasirye Byaruhanga & Co Advocates can’t sign on because it will create perceptions of conflict of interest and all those things. That’s is why he feels it’s time to return to business because that cabinet post can’t be him even a fraction of what he would have accomplished if he was freely engaging in business as before,” said a lawyer source who is personally very close to the AG. After his exit, which the President will most likely grant, his shrewd deputy Mwesigwa Rukutana could be elevated to the post of full AG as Museveni buys time to find a more suitable person.
BYARUHANGA RICHES;
Besides being a founding partner in prominent city law firm Kasirye Byaruhanga & Co Advocates, the AG operates big dollar bank accounts and owns a large chunk of real estate property in Kampala. In fact he is only rivaled by Sudhir Ruparelia, Mohan Kiwanuka and Agha Khan when it comes to owning large prime properties in Kampala.
We are just curious as to why the Forbes Magazine hasn’t yet captured his profile as a rich East African. We can reveal without any fear of contradiction that Byaruhanga, who accepted to serve in Museveni’s government just for comity rather than desire to make quick money, owns the following vast business empires within Kampala’s Central Business District: The introverted tycoon, who likes keeping low profile, owns more commercial buildings on Dewinton road than even Sudhir himself.
Byaruhanga is only rivaled by former Uganda Prime Minister Eng Ibrahim Waliggo’s family when it comes to property ownership along Dewinton road. This is the street opposite National Theatre and closely overlooking Parliamentary Buildings. Waliggo was Minister under Okello Lutwa’s Junta (July 1985-January 1986) and his vast estate was inherited by his son Allan Nakirembeka Waliggo, a close personal friend of Kabaka Mutebi. One source, who knows him pretty well, claimed that the AG William Byaruhanga owns more than half of the huge storied buildings at Dewinton road-overlooking National Theatre.
He also owns some vacant properties in the same area. Yet that isn’t all. AG Byaruhanga also owns Amamu House (with many government agencies renting there) and nearby Rwenzori House and Rwenzori Courts. Just know that his office/commercial properties in this upper Nakasero neighborhood are so vast they stretch to cover two streets namely Nakasero Road and nearby Lumumba Avenue. There is also a newer building between the Rwenzoris and Faze2 which he co-owns with long time business partner Charlie Lubega.
Byaruhanga also owns the opulent Bugolobi-based Village Mall which we can reliably reveal cost him over $8m. Half of this money was a development loan from one East African Development Bank headed by a Kenyan lady called Vivienne Yeda Apopo who is a personal friend to the AG William Byaruhanga. Gratefully the AG has since repaid this loan because of the good tenants and fast businesses he has on the Village Mall. The beauty with development loans similar to what EADB offers and which Byaruhanga has always relied upon, is that they have long repayment period and attract low interest rates. His law firm (KB), which he co-owns with former Uganda Law Society President Andrew Kasirye, has some of the best clients in town and the fact that he is now AG (the head of bar and Principal Legal Advisor to government) would ordinarily mean more lucrative clients becoming attracted to the firm but Byaruhanga has been discouraging this on ethical grounds and in the process hurting his own business prospects. In Fort Portal, deeply-spiritual William Byaruhanga owns the famous Mountain of the Moon Hotel which is simply the best of its kind in the whole of Toro and Rwenzori regions. In fact it’s the only place (apart from State Lodge) where President Museveni resides whenever he is in the land of King Oyo. Yet so swanky is Byaruhanga’s country home on the outskirts of Fort Portal town that Museveni, who is his personal friend as earlier indicated, always goes there to relax whenever he seeks private meditational moments while in Toro or Rwenzori region.
He is one of the very few homes in Western Uganda where Museveni goes for private visits and freely joins family members for meals. Sometimes Byaruhanga handlers vacate the premises to enable the big man from Rwakitura have private meetings with his political allies. On Museveni’s prompting, some African presidents have retreated to William Byaruhanga’s country home in Fort Portal whenever they are tormented by political nightmares in their respective countries and are longing for a quiet place to meditate from. William Byaruhanga also has some properties in Entebbe. In Bugoloobi, on the same lane with his Village Mall, the AG owns Springs Apartments which is very attractive to well earning corporates, expatriates and young families seeking for a great place to stay in. “He believes in borrowing combined with discipline to pay back and he won’t decline a loan offer once confronted with good interest and long enough repayment period,” remarked a banking industry source that knows William Byaruhanga pretty well. In fact because of his discipline in paying back, in most cases it’s the banks and financial institutions (local and international) that go begging him to accept low interest loans.
OTHER QUITING MINISTERS;
Yet William Byaruhanga isn’t the only minister currently pestering Museveni to be let go. There are others who are equally Museveni’s long time personal confidants like Janat Mukwaya of Gender. She is elderly and reliable sources close to her say she is fatigued by the general inefficiency in government service delivery and wants to resume her private life from which Museveni recalled her as part of broader efforts to demystify the impression JPAM, Besigye, Sejusa and others had created during the 2016 campaigns that the President was a traitor with whom many historical NRM members were disappointed. Sources also told this news website that Mukwaya resents mediocrity and ethnicity yet she contemptuously sees a lot of it in government today and she has religiously been fighting the same at Gender Ministry. In her absence, Museveni could elevate her husband Capt. Abbey Mukwaya to either head the NRM Secretariat or cabinet position just to keep that section of his old Muslim allies represented on the table of eaters. Of course there is VP Edward Sekandi whose predicament we comprehensively reported about in our other story titled “Let me Go; Sekandi begs M7 to fire him.” At the Defense & Veteran Affairs Ministry, ailing Adolf Mwesige would gladly respond if Museveni relieves him of such a very demanding cabinet docket. Highly brilliant Mwesige, who likes calling himself the Political Animal of Bunyangabu, has already confided in close confidantes that the only way he would emotionally settle and efficiently manage pressure that comes with holding such a demanding cabinet position would be if the extension of the Parliamentary term from 5 to 7 years was allowed to stand. But there general anxiety out there, including amongst NRM MPs, that the Constitutional Court will most likely throw the thing out on moral grounds. That will mean incumbent MPs not having any time to rest because late next year 2019, internal party rivals will already be out actively campaigning to replace them as NRM flag bearers and there are fears State House always prefers newcomers (because they are gullible and not politically very sophisticated) as opposed to supporting “more complicated” incumbents to keep their seats. One MP said the day Court rules that the extension was illegal, “Kadaga and Oulanyah are going to suffer most as there will be no more quorum because all MPs desiring to keep their seats are going to relocate to their constituencies and Museveni too will suffer as there will be no MPs to pass his urgent things anymore like the State House supplementary budget.”
THE ADOLF CONDITION;
Returning to Adolf Mwesige; he has (despite colossal sums of money invested by the President personally for his expensive treatment in India) failed to sufficiently heal. He suffers a brain problem and was recently medically advised to undergo another comprehensive surgery called RIPOSCANY to help mitigate the excessive weight he has put on lately resulting mostly from the other excessive medication the Indian doctors put him on after undergoing the initial operation to prevent the tumor from re-growing. The recommended operation is something that has put Adolf in great trauma because it’s possible he can fail to come back or come out of the theatre but remain in a much more fragile situation than he is in currently. This dilemma is the reason why Adolf was among those who had invested much of their hopes in the relief resulting from the 2 year extension (from 5 to 7 years) in case court was to allow it stand but there are widespread fears in the NRM Caucus membership this is unlikely from what they saw during the televised age limit case hearing in Mbale. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755!
