Who is John Bosco Muwonge? Flash Uganda Media looks at his biography, age, wife, family, tribe, achievements, and relationship with John Ssebalamu, Paul Lubega, Haruna Ssegawa, Resty, Ms Eseza Nola Nakibuuka, and the early life and education of one of the top wealthiest Uganda businessmen.
John Bosco Muwonge is one of the top wealthiest Uganda businessmen.
He is a private billionaire who rarely appears in public.
Muwonge is one of Kampala’s top five property owners and earns a lot of money from his various commercial properties in the city’s core business sector.
Early Life and Education
John Bosco Muwonge was born in Kasanje, Masaka District, Uganda.
He is the older brother of John Ssebalamu, Paul Lubega, and Haruna Ssegawa, as well as their sisters Christine Nabukeera and the late Naiga.
According to family members, the brothers worked closely together establishing enterprises in Masaka in the early 1980s. They appeared to struggle together on their bicycles, hauling banana bunches and coffee bags from the villages to the market in Masaka’s peri-urban neighbourhoods.
When their sister, Naiga, moved to Kampala, she assisted them in opening an apparel store in Masaka Township in 1988. They would then travel to Kampala to buy clothing in bulk before returning to Masaka, where they would sell them at their retail stores and flea markets.
His brother Paul Lubega had already married Gertrude, and Muwonge afterwards married Gertrude’s sister, Resty. Muwonge proposed that John Ssebalamu marry Ruth, the sister to his brothers’ wives, which he did.
Career and Professional Work Experience
Muwonge teamed with Ssebalamu to handle the shops after Naiga died. Because of the nature of flea markets, they roamed among major towns in the sub-region in search of customers, gaining trade exposure and relationships.
They chose to relocate to Kampala and continue business in clothes at Buganda Bus Park (now Qualicel) because of those connections. They then began importing clothing from the Middle East, and their enterprises expanded over time.
The family members invested in old houses and constructed arcades.
Muwonge is regarded as one of the city’s biggest landlords, having properties strewn across the Kisenyi district, Kafumbe-Mukasa Road, Old Kampala, and the Central Business District.
Premier core on Nabugabo Road, Superior Complex on Ben Kiwanuka Street, Kati Kati Plaza, Premium Centre Building, Boost Arcade, commercial structures for Buganda Bus Park and a dozen more properties in the city core are all owned by Muwonge.
His most recent ventures have been in Kisenyi, where he purchased most of the land on which Nabagereka Primary School was built and repurposed it for other business use.
Muwonge founded Gwanda, one of Kisenyi’s largest shopping malls, and he reduced rent and provided three months of free rent to new tenants so as to attract business to Kisenyi.
Achievements and Awards
John Bosco Muwonge has been named Uganda’s richest man, topping even Sudhir Ruparelia. Muwonge has a net worth of USD 1.8 billion, the majority of which comes from the business industry.
Muwonge and his siblings, first-generation muloodi billionaires John Ssebalamu, Paul Lubega, Christine Nabukeera, and Haruna Ssegawa, own a large chunk of Kampala City.
Muwonge, who owns Namanda, Cooper complex, Cornerstone, Discount mall, Shamba complex, Shauriyako ggagawala, Namayiba bus station, Gwanda mall Kisenyi, Superior complex, New Arua park complex, and a street in Nabugabo, has increased his stake in Kampala’s CBD in recent years.
He owns over 40 construction sites in Kampala, as well as over 400 acres of land in the Kisenyi region.
Muwonge owns two significant taxi and bus parks in Kisenyi, and he has transformed the once swampy lands into a new trading centre.
Controversies
Muwonge is regarded as the most frugal and rarely believes in contributing to societal concerns.
In 2019, the “Umoja Veterans Association” accused John Bosco Muwonge of stealing their land, which they claim was handed to them by the president. The contested land is located at Plot 889 on Kafumbe Mukasa Road and measures 1.2 acres.
Muwonge also demolished physical structures belonging to veterans on Christmas Day of 2015, according to veterans counsellor and organisation member Kaggwa Semwogerere.
The group filed a case in High Court and received a favourable verdict. The court ordered Muwonge to pay them Shs 800 million which he never did.
Muwonge was arrested in January 2015 for ordering the demolition of Nabagereka Primary School through his investment company, Boost, He was later released after a government investigation discovered that its own authorities were involved in the deal.
The disputed USh370 billion land agreement between the Government of Uganda and city tycoon John Bosco Muwonge took a turn when a woman came forward claiming ownership of a 10-acre plot of land in Kisenyi.
Through her lawyers, Ms Eseza Nola Nakibuuka wrote to the Minister of Finance claiming ownership of the Kisenyi land and accusing Muwonge’s company, Boost Investments Ltd, of illegally acquiring the Kisenyi land certificate titles.
Ms Nakibuuka requested that the intended purchase of the Kisenyi land be halted by the Ministry of Finance.
Obed Mwebesa and Associates, Ms Nakibuuka’s lawyers, argued that the late Erenesti Keresipo Kizito gained the land through succession. Boost Investments Limited, nevertheless, well aware of the deceased’s interest in the land, illegally sought and got a certificate of title to the above land.
Furthermore, Mwebesa claimed that because the land did not fall under ULC’s jurisdiction, the business lacked the power to offer the stated lease.
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