Tailor’s son with noble connections

By the time I completed Junior Two, my father did not have enough money to enable me to continue with studies. Previously, I hadstarted working part-time in an Asian-owned shop in Wobulenzi Town. They stocked general merchandise like soap, cooking oil, kerosene and matchboxes.
Having dropped out of school I started working full-time. I think at that time I had the best salary as a shop attendant; Shs 600 per month.

Moving to Kampala
In 1967 I got a job at Cashco Supermarket behind Drapers House, owned by the late Kibuuka Musoke. I later moved to Nakasero Distributors where present day Capital Shoppers (Down town) is located. We were the leading distributors of both soda and beers selling 2000 and 4000 crates respectively daily.

In 1970, I left Nakasero Distributors and joined the Popat Brothers on South Street now Ben Kiwanuka Street, dealing in rice, with the intent of starting my own business in two years’ time. I was going to deal in bagasse (kalodo) a popular raw material for making crude waragi.
Unfortunately, it never came to pass because before I could open the shop in Nabugabo then known as the ‘thief’s bazaar’, Idi Amin expelled Asians from Uganda. However,I was not affected.

The expulsion
There were at least 30,000 Ugandan Asians who had taken up Uganda Citizenship, but Amin revoked it. Many people like me who were born here were scared and left out of fear. People like, Mzee Rafiki, Mukwano, Karim Hirji,myself and about 50 others stayed.

During Amin’s time, I had no problem with the regime because of my influence on the regime. I had known some of them from Bombo when we were still young. When Amin came to power one of the taxi drivers from Bombo became head of security, there was also a one Obedi who joined the security. Amin’s brother was working with my brother on Nakivubo mews before Amin takeover, so I felt safe.

When Amin made the second announcement that people of Asian origin were left with 60 days to leave the country, that is when people took him serious. At my house in Old Kampala opposite the Agha Khan mosque I accommodated more than 50 people and helped some get money for air tickets; and used my connections with the security to get for some of them passports. Many of those left their properties like cars, buildings and some even money under my care.

About a month to the deadline, there was a stampede because Amin announced that those who remain behind will be taken to camps in Moroto. Like my parents, there were many people holding British passports but married to those with Ugandan passports.

The British government allowed my mother to enter Britain, but my father was granted refugee status.
Ugandan passport holders were allowed luggage of not more than 250kg and cash not more than £110 an equivalent of Shs 2,200 then as travel allowance. Non-Ugandans were allowed to carry £50(about Shs 1000) only then.

Almost 95 per cent of those who left considered Uganda their home; and they had not taken anything with them. They had no reason to do so and had no other place to call home. People who were millionaires became paupers in a flash.
All people leaving were ordered to fill in forms detailing what they had left behind; thus declare their properties and goods in the shops to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

As far as documentation is concerned, Amin gave the expulsion a legal face through documenting what had been left behind.
Having cancelled plans to open my shop, I ended up managing properties of some of the people who had left, I took care of present day Crocodile Restaurant at Kisementi, drive-in Cinema, and some other properties around Shimoni area.
But this was temporary as they were to be handed over to government. For the shops, people came with soldiers broke in and forcefully occupied them.
Unfortunately many of the Ugandans at the time didn’t know what to do with the shops. I went to one shop called A.S. Jaffer where Radio One is today, to buy a shirt. I was wearing size 14-and-a-half.

When I asked for the price of the shirt, the new shop owner looked at the size of the shirt and told me it was Shs 14.50 cents, to him the size of the shirt was its price. The actual price of the shirt was Shs120. By 1976, almost all the shops were empty; the new owners did not know where to get the new stock from. Then, magendo contraband business started.

Going to UK
January 1973, I left Uganda to visit my parents in London. Unfortunately while there I lost my passport; I ended up as a refugee until 1980. I tried getting another passport from the Uganda High Commission but I was denied one.
For the first six months, I was not allowed to work. Later, I tried my luck again and was successful. I got my first job at Walkers Steel, by then one of the biggest steel companies in the world. I later moved to another company dealing in frozen foods called Christian Salvation. It is from here that I learnt a lot about running and managing an industry.
I was in UK for the first time, I missed home and the worst time was winter.
When I married an Indian in 1975, my in-laws asked about whether I considered going back to Uganda and I answered, Uganda is my home.

Returning home
I came back in June 1980 and got a job at Picfare. At that time, they were importers and distributors of different commodities like sugar, wines, whisky, and soap mainly to the army shop. It was not easy to operate a factory because of security and power problems. The easiest form of business was importing of ready-made goods.

Three years later I left Picfare, to start my business Priamit Enterprises dealing in car tyres in Jinja.
The three years I had worked at Picfare, supplying the army shop I got to know different government officials like Rwakasisi, the late Bazilio Okello and Colonel Ogwang plus former president Tito Okello was a close friend. He used to come to my house for meals before he became president.
This connection helped me supply the army with tyres, and other products when I started my business. When the 1985 coup happened I lost close to $1m.

The Saturday of the coup, I left with friends for Nairobi by road, not knowing what had happened. In Jinja, I sensed something wrong but proceeded. At Busia border point I was told the president had left the country earlier same day. We had been stopped from taking our vehicles past the border point to Nairobi where were going to watch a popular Indian musician, but we negotiated and took them.
On return, my house in Makerere, Kivulu had been ransacked, the shop was no exception, I lost four containers of goods. I was bailed out and given loans by Indians and the bank to get started again.
During Tito’s regime I got connected to the army because Tito and Bazillio Okello were personal friends. They gave me two guards at home and others to move with.

Becoming Mengo minister
When I returned, I joined a group of people who revived the Uganda Motor Club. As a club we organised a rally to raise funds towards Kabaka Mutebi’s coronation in 1993. The first coronation rally in Lubiri raised up to Shs70m.
After this rally, three more were organised and this helped me cement friendship with then Buganda ministers like Jolly Lutaya and Kaddu Kiberu. In 2006, some Buganda ministers approached me saying that Sabasajja wanted me to be a minister.

I did not think I was eligible for such a position. I told them to ask Karim or Sudhir. They insisted that the Kabaka wanted me. I set a condition that we should have Mahamoud Taban of Fourways Group of Companies as a minister then I deputise him. It was agreed upon and then I ended up as the minister of state for economic development and planning, until June 2013.
Currently, Tailor still runs his businesses, Priamit Enterprises in Jinja with his office branch on Jinja Road and Roliat Estates .