Who is John Sebalamu? Flash Uganda Media looks at his biography, age, wife, family, tribe, achievements, and relationship with John Bosco Muwonge, Paul Lubega, Haruna Ssegawa, Christine Nabukeera, Resty, Betty Amongi, and the early life and education of the owner of Freedom City.
John Sebalamu is a renowned businessman and real estate mogul in Uganda.
Sebalamu is well-known for owning Freedom City, a multi-million dollar shopping mall and recreation complex on Entebbe Road in Najjanankumbi.
He also owns several other well-known buildings including Capital House, Naiga Chambers, and others.
Early Life and Education
John Sebalamu was born and grew up in Kasanje, Masaka District, Uganda.
In 1982, he dropped out of school while in S1 when life became hard. He then began peddling matooke on his bicycle. He would purchase it from farmers in Kasanje and transport it to the Nyendo business centre.
When he realised the paraffin business prospect, he began peddling paraffin in Masaka. He would strap four jerry cans of paraffin to his bike and ride from market to market.
His siblings were likewise in the same line of work. John Ssebalamu’s siblings include; John Bosco Muwonge, Paul Lubega, Haruna Ssegawa, and Christine Nabukeera.
A few years later, they relocated to Masaka’s main market, where they rented stalls and began selling shoes.
Sebalamu joined forces with his elder brother, John Bosco Muwonge, who is now one of Kampala’s top five richest and most recognised property owners.
They bought shoes from dealers and sold them in Masaka. By 1988, they were well-known in Masaka as the two diligent brothers.
They were also mentored by their late elder sister Naiga, who ran a second-hand clothing company in Masaka. Sebalamu later named one of his buildings Naiga Chambers after their late sister.
With money of approximately USh20 million, the two brothers also entered the second-hand clothing business, as their late elder sister had recommended them.
When she died a year later, they took over her business, which enhanced their stock even more.
Family
His brothers, Paul Lubega married Gertrude, and Muwonge married Gertrude’s sister, Resty. Muwonge suggested that John Ssebalamu marry Ruth, his brothers’ wives’ sister, which he did.
Mrs Ruth Sebalamu gave her husband a brand new Toyota Hilux in 2017 to commemorate their 25th wedding anniversary.
Business
John Sebalamu and his siblings, John Bosco Muwonge, Lubega, Segawa, and Christine Nabukeera, who are all now well-known property entrepreneurs, moved to Kampala in 1992.
Sebalamu had a capital of roughly USh100 million, which was sufficient to start a business in Kampala.
Sebalamu and his brother Muwonge were the first Ugandans to bring new garments to Kampala from Dubai. They would bring the clothing, which Dubai vendors would give them on credit in bales known as dozens.
They would return, sell the clothes, and then return to Dubai to pay for them. They also rented a shop in the Skylite Arcade, which is located near Buganda Bus Park.
As a result, Sebalamu was dubbed “Capital” by fellow traders, who considered him the one who paved the road for them to succeed in business.
From garments, he then developed an interest in real estate and joined the industry in the mid-1990s. When Sebalamu first entered the property market, the property prices in downtown Kampala skyrocketed.
A downtown building costs between US$80,000 and US$200,000 (USh72 million and USh180 million back then, equivalent to USh200 million and USh500 million today).
Unfortunately, the majority of those who had rented these buildings from the Custodian Board could not afford to pay for them. As a result, only Ugandans with money could purchase these buildings.
Beginning in 1997, the URA became more strict in collecting taxes from traders. That is when Sebalamu began to take the Kampala real estate market seriously.
Between 1995 and 1998, he purchased more properties in town and developed a few, including the Carlton Hotel and the former Container Village, but he also sold many of them.
Sebalamu built his first building, Capital House, on Ben Kiwanuka Street in 1995. It was the first of the modern shopping arcades that can be found across downtown Kampala and other growing areas. It was built in a different style than everyone else. He had imitated the Dubai style.
Everyone soon began to mimic Sebalamu’s actions. All they did was buy old buildings, demolish them, and build shopping malls similar to the ones he saw in Dubai. Traders quickly filled the gap, resulting in substantial returns.
Unfortunately, building costs were too expensive beginning in 2000, making fast development unfeasible.
Sebalamu was however still able to erect Naiga Chambers and Mini Price on Kampala Road.
Later, he bought 3.5 acres of prime property on Entebbe Road in Najjanankumbi from the Buganda Property Board for US$1 million and began building Freedom City.
He estimated that the project will cost more than $20 million (about USh45 billion). If Sebalamu did not possess a construction company, the cost would have been higher.
He was his own contractor and obtained all of his materials, from sand to metal panels. He also owns a mine, from which he obtained all of the sand for the project.
Achievements and Awards
John Sebalamu, a multi-property owner in Kampala, Uganda, is credited with establishing the now-ubiquitous shopping arcade culture in the heart of Kampala’s central business district in the 1990s.
First-generation billionaires John Ssebalamu and his siblings own a substantial portion of Kampala City.
The multi-million dollar retail mall Freedom City, the Capital shopping complex on Nakivubo Road, the Capital House business centre on Dastur Street, the Naiga Chambers marketplace, and several other important sites are all owned by the real estate mogul.
Controversies
Following a stampede that claimed ten lives on New Year’s Eve 2023, police summoned John Sebalamu, the proprietor of Freedom City Mall.
The deceased were among those who attended the mall’s party-after-party concert organized by Abbey Musinguzi, also known as Abitex.
Betty Amongi, the Minister for Lands, Housing, and Urban Development, ordered the revocation of a land title belonging to Sebalamu in October 2016 due to fraud and wetland encroachment.
Minister Amongi told the Parliament’s Natural Resources Committee that Sebalamu’s acts constituted fraud and that prompt action was required.
Editor’s Note: Please contact flashugnews@gmail.com if you find any of the content to be inaccurate or outdated.
