Profiles: President Museveni,Sudhir Ruparelia, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi and 37 others inducted onto the Uganda Great40 Leaders Hall of Fame 2022
The 2022 Uganda GREAT40 Leaders were inducted onto the 2022 Uganda Great Leaders Who is Who Hall of Fame Poster by Public Opinions in appreciation of their enormous contributions towards attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Uganda Vision 2040 which is: “A Transformed Ugandan Society from a Peasant to a Modern and Prosperous Country by 2040.
WHO IS GEN YOWERI KAGUTA MUSEVENI
H.E Gen Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was recognized by Public Opinions with the Uganda Responsible Investment Mark of Excellence Award as a Uganda Peace and Economic Development Champion Award in appreciation of his contribution towards ensuring total peace and stability in Uganda and his commitment to ensure peace and stability in the Great Lakes Region. In his acceptance speech, President Museveni dedicated the Award to the Freedom Fighters. On 3rd December 2022, Public Opinions recognized President Museveni with the East African Peace and Development Champion Award in appreciation of his contributions towards ensuring peace and development in the Great Lakes Region.
Gen.Museveni became President of the Republic of Uganda on January 29, 1986 after leading a successful five-year liberation struggle. The push for Kampala started on January 17th from different parts of the central region. While General Salim Saleh was the field commander, Museveni was the overall commander. They captured power on 26th January, 1986.After victory, he formed a broad-based government that helped to unite the country’s political groups. Previous to the struggle of 1981-1986, Museveni had been one of the leaders in the anti-Amin resistance of 1971-1979 that had led to the fall of that monstrous regime. President Museveni has been able to restore the rule of law and constitutionalism in Uganda,President Museveni has been able to maintain total peace and stability throughout Uganda and he has been working for total annihilation of all subversive groups which can hinder total transformation of Uganda.
H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni became President of the Republic of Uganda on January 29, 1986 after leading a successful five-year liberation struggle. He went to the bush with 26 other young men and organized the National Resistance Movement and National Resistance Army (NRM/NRA) to oppose the tyranny that previous regimes had unleashed upon the population.
Museveni, who has been politically active since his student days at Ntare School, Mbarara, in South West Uganda, studied political science at the University of Dar es Salaam, graduating in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Political Science.
After Idi Amin’s coup in 1971, Museveni was instrumental in forming FRONASA (the Front for National Salvation). Fronasa made up the core of one of the Ugandan fighting groups which, together with the Tanzanian People’s Defence Forces, ousted Amin’s regime in April 1979.
In the governments that succeeded Amin, Museveni served briefly as Minister of Defence, Minister of Regional Co-operation and Vice-Chairman of the Military Commission. In December 1980, the country’s first general elections in 20 years were held but they were rigged by Milton Obote’s Uganda People’s Congress party. On February 6, 1981, he launched a guerrilla struggle. He went to the bush with only 26 guns and organised the National Resistance Army (NRA) to oppose the Obote regime for its undemocratic and tyranical actionas.
The NRA (now renamed the Uganda People’s Defence Forces) is unique in Africa for being the only guerrilla force to take over power without much external support and without having a rear base in a neighbouring country. Its main camps were based only 20 miles from the capital, Kampala. This demonstrated how the NRA leadership was, in extremely difficult circumstances, capable of achieving sophisticated levels of organisational discipline and techniques for managing both soldiers and civilians.
Early Political Awareness
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was born in 1944 during the Second World War and his name was taken from the Abaseveni, who were Ugandan servicemen in the Seventh Regiment of the King’s African Rifles into which many Ugandans had been drafted.
He was born in a peasant pastoralist family in Ankole, western Uganda. Because they lived a nomadic life style, most children did not go to school.
In addition, they were exploited and oppressed by land policies, such as ranching schemes, which displaced them from their traditional lands. Such policies were instituted by the British colonialists and supported by local collaborator chiefs and, later, by neo-colonialist independence politicians.
Owing to his background and his early determination to fight against political and social injustices, Museveni decided, in 1966, to lead a campaign mobilising the peasants in northern Ankole to fence their land and refuse to vacate it. The campaign was largely successful and his political awareness and activity became more focused during the three years (1967 to 1970) he spent at the University of Dar es Salaam. His wide reading covered Fanon, Lenin, Marx, Rodney, Mao, as well as liberal Western thinkers like Galbraith. These writers shaped his intellectual and political outlook.
Compared to other universities in the region, Dar es Salaam had a very good, progressive atmosphere which gave the students a chance to become familiar with pan-Africanist and anti-colonialist ideas. This was due to the Pan-Africanist views and policies of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, the then President of Tanzania. Nevertheless, many professors and lecturers were right wing in their views and this often brought them into conflict with the radical students.
The dissatisfaction with the stance of the lecturers in 1967 led Museveni, Eriya Kategaya, James Wapakhabulo, Joseph Mulwanyamuli Ssemwogerere, John Kawanga, all from Uganda, Charles Kileo and Salim Msoma from Tanzania, Kapote Mwakasungura from Malawi, Adam Marwa and Patrick Quoro also from Tanzania, John Garang from Sudan, Andrew Shija from Tanzania, and many students from other African countries, to form a self-help ideological study and activist group known as the University Students African Revolutionary Front (USARF) . Every Sunday they would hold a class, invite speakers of their choice, enrich their ideas about the evolution of society, and discuss topics dealing with the production and distribution of wealth.
USARF was composed of students from Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda and Museveni was elected its chairman for the whole time he was at the university. USARF identified closely with African liberation movements, especially Frelimo in Mozambique, which the Front supported, for instance, by producing pamphlets for their publicity work. Other members of USARF were to become politically active and influential both in Uganda and elsewhere in Africa.
Pragmatic, Nationalist Politician
Although President Museveni is a man with very strong convictions, his political vision on how to lay a foundation for reconciliation and national harmony enabled him to accommodate ideas that were often opposed to his. One of his greatest contributions to the politics of Uganda, therefore, has been to spearhead a policy of reconciliation after two decades of social and political turmoil. Under his leadership, the Movement government has ended the vicious circle of vengeance and hatred that had ruined the country. People from different tribes, religions and political allegiances can now co-exist in harmony.
He accepts this heterogeneity as a matter of course because it mirrors the social spectrum of Ugandan society. He formed a broad-based government and demonstrated to Ugandans that although they had different political, social and religious backgrounds, they had a lot in common and a common destiny, contrary to the divide-and-rule tactics previous politicians had used to fragment Ugandan society.
He took pains to explain that the typical Third World problems of poverty, illiteracy, disease and general backwardness had nothing to do with one’s religion or ethnic origin. The NRM’s guiding Ten-Point Programme, which was debated and agreed upon under his chairmanship in 1984 during the bush war, basically set out to redress the political and social wrongs that were inflicted on the Ugandan people for two-and-a- half decades. He says: “The National Resistance Movement has an unwavering commitment to the respect of human rights and the sanctity of life. We waged a protracted war against tyranny on a platform of restoring personal freedoms and the amelioration of the socio-economic conditions of our people – that is the cornerstone of our programme.”
He has typically taken a very independent political stand and says: “We take from every system what is best for us and we reject what is bad for us. We do not judge the economic programmes of other nations because we believe that each nation knows best how to address the needs of its people. The NRM is neither pro-West nor pro-East – it is pro-Uganda”.
In July 1990, President Museveni was elected the Chairman of the Organisation of African Unity for the year 1990/91. As he said in his acceptance speech, this was a vote of confidence in the efforts of the National Resistance Movement to build a just society with a democratic and economically viable future for the nation. The general consensus both at home and abroad, however, was that his election was a vote of confidence in the man himself. It showed that after only four-and-a-half years in office, he was already an international statesman of considerable standing.
A new Constitution for Uganda
When the National Resistance Movement came to power in 1986, it started working methodically towards taking Uganda back to the constitutional road from which it had been diverted by past regimes. A Constitutional Commission was instituted to gather views from Ugandans throughout the whole country. After two years’ work traversing the whole country gathering the people’s views, the Commission produced a report from which a draft constitution was extracted. A Constituent Assembly was elected and tasked to debate, enact and promulgate a new constitution.
When the Constituent Assembly was opened on May 18, 1994, President Museveni challenged the delegates: “We must ensure that our political institutions spring from our social structure. If we are to develop, we must evolve institutional models which will liberate us from our backwardness. We must modernise our societies and lay the foundation for industrialisation. We cannot modernise, industrialise or develop without creating an appropriate institutional framework within which to work. It is the historic responsibility of this Constituent Assembly to set our country on the path to development and prosperity.”
Although the law entitled him, as President, to address the Constituent Assembly on any issue he wished, he deliberately refused to influence the proceedings. As a result, no individual or political faction can dub the new constitution a ‘Museveni’ document. This was a great contribution to the constitution-making process.
Delegates arrived at decisions either by consensus or majority vote. However, he advised delegates to combine flexibility on contentious issues by distinguishing between subjective demands and the objective realities that faced the country. The process culminated in the promulgation of a new constitution on October 8, 1995. Museveni says: “The NRM has been like a political doctor trying to solve the problems of Uganda. In order to treat a disease, however, you must, first of all, diagnose the illness.” Ugandans agree that the new constitution went a long way towards healing the political and social ills from which Uganda had suffered since independence. It also laid a firm foundation for the stability of the country for generations to come.
First Directly Elected President
In 1996, Museveni offered himself as a candidate for President in the first general elections since the abortive attempt of 1980. Two other candidates, including Paulo Ssemwogerere, the veteran opposition leader who had been a minister in the NRM government for 10 years, opposed him. Museveni won with more than 75% of the vote – and became the first directly elected President in the history of Uganda. Uganda has since had five Presidential elections, in 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, and an equal number of parliamentary and local elections.
Museveni inherited an economy that was totally collapsed. He, however, enjoyed the support of the international community in order to revitalize it. Museveni initiated economic policies designed to combat key problems such as hyperinflation and the balance of payments.
The infrastructure is far better than he found it, new schools and universities have been constructed, communication has improved 100 fold just like the banking and industrial sectors.
Museveni has initiated dramatic programmes that are destined to transform the lives of Ugandans forever. Grassroots-based programmes in health, safe water provision and mass education have replaced the colonial and post-colonial programmes that did not address the needs of the majority of Ugandans. Under his leadership, the government has registered monumental landmarks in Agriculture; Operation Wealth Creation, Emancipation of Women, Tourism, Democracy, Peace and Stability, and Water and Sanitation.
Museveni is married to Janet Kataha. They have four children and many grandchildren.
WHO IS DR.SUDHIR RUPARELIA
Dr Sudhir Ruparelia is arguably Uganda’s richest man and one of East Africa’s wealthiest businessmen. His Ruparelia Group, comprising of over 28 companies, has tentacles in real estate, financial services, education services, hospitality, horticulture, media/broadcasting and most recently, labour externalization. But he wasn’t born rich- he is your basic started-from-the-bottom-now-we-are-here businessman. From being a 17-year old student, he suddenly found himself on London streets looking for a job, after President Idi Amin had expelled Ugandans of Asian origin in 1972.
After failing to join the UK’s Royal Armed Force’s he did several jobs, including being a supermarket attendant, to being a cab driver as he juggled his studies until he finished High School. In 1985, he returned to Uganda armed with about $25,000 in savings and since then, he has never looked back. Through a series of greenfield investments, acquisitions, joint ventures and expansions he, with the support of family, has grown the Ruparelia Group into a well over USD1.2 billion conglomerate and still growing.
Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia is the founder and chairman of the Ruparelia Foundation. Born in 1956, in Kabatoro- Kasese district. Dr. Ruparelia’s story of entrepreneurship is an inspiration in hard work.
In 2015, Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia was listed as the 27th wealthiest individual in Africa. He is most often in the public spotlight for his contribution towards the economy of Uganda as he was awarded the Golden Jubilee Presidential Medal by the president of Uganda, His Excellency President Yoweri Museveni on 9th, Oct, 2013.
On 25th, Oct, 2013, Dr. Sudhir was awarded the Honorary Doctorate of Laws by Uganda Pentecostal University and 2018, he received East Africa Business award. He was voted for his inspiration in Business Leadership for many people in the East African region.
His the third (3rd) generation of the Gujarit family born in Uganda after his great grandfather migrating to Uganda in 1903 from Mombasa, Kenya. He attended Bat Valley Primary School in Kampala, from P1 to P6, then Jinja Main Street Primary School in Jinja for Primary seven and Jinja Secondary School. In 1971, he joined Kololo Senior Secondary School.
In 1972 at the age of 16, Dr. Sudhir moved to the United Kingdom with his parents after the expulsion of all Asians from Uganda by the ruling president dictator Idi Amin Dada. While in UK, Dr. Ruparelia worked odd jobs in factories, supermarkets and butcheries to put himself through A’ level. It was from such odd jobs that the then young and enthusiastic Sudhir made his first real savings.
In 1985, Dr. Sudhir returned to Uganda with US$25,000 earned from several casual jobs in UK. No challenge would stop the business enthusiastic Ruparelia, not even the ban on beer and spirit importation from Kenya, a business he had just started. This only pushed him to be more innovative which saw him start up Crane Forex bureau the first ever forex bureau in Uganda. Since then he has built the largest portfolio of properties in Uganda compromising of prime commercial, industrial and residential properties mainly in Kampala. He has further invested in the insurance, Hospitality, Education, Floriculture, Media and Leisure industry forming Ruparelia Group of Companies. Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia is married to Jyotsna, and they have three children: Meera, Sheena and Rajiv.
Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia is not only big on business, but he also has a big heart. He is the Founder & Chairman of the Ruparelia Foundation through which group businesses are regular and substantial supporters of various community, national and individual causes. Some of the causes include healthcare, arts and culture, heritage and religion, environmental and wildlife conservation, agricultural research, education and talent development as well as sports. Since the Foundation was created, the Group has donated more than USD 1 million to several charitable causes. Individually and as a family, Dr Sudhir Ruparelia also participates in many philanthropic endeavors to alleviate poverty and hardship amongst disadvantaged members of Ugandan communities.
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
- Honorary Doctor of Laws, from Uganda Pentecostal University
- Golden Jubilee Presidential Medal by His Excellency President Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda on 9th October 2013 for his contribution towards the economy of Uganda.
- Forbes Magazine, 24th Wealthiest Person in Africa, 2014
- Certificate of Appreciation by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) in recognition of his contribution towards Individual Rental Income Tax for the financial year 2016/17
- Inducted on the 2019 Uganda Great 20 Who is Who Leaders Hall of Fame Poster by Public Opinions
- East Africa Business Leadership Award by East Africa Book of Records (EABOR) Secretariat on 16th of November 2018.
WHO SSAABASAJJA KABAKA RONALD MUWENDA MUTEBI II
His Majesty Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II is the reigning Kabaka (King) of the Kingdom of Buganda. At the time of his birth, his father Sir Edward Muteesa II was in exile in Britain at the beginning of the political unrest in Uganda.
He was born on 13th April, 1955 at Mulago hospital to Ssekabaka Muteesa II and Namasole (Queen Mother) Sarah Nalule Kisosonkole of the Nkima (Monkey) clan. He was enthroned as the 36th Kabaka on 31st July, 1993.
In the governance of the Kingdom of Buganda, the Kabaka vests most of the administration of the Kingdom in the Katikkiro (Executive Prime Minister) with a cabinet composed of Ministers. The Lukiiko is the Parliament of the Kingdom of Buganda, working with cabinet devolves administration from to the eighteen counties of the Kingdom of Buganda. The Kabaka mandates the clan heads to ensure that all norms and traditions of the Baganda people are observed and followed.
He has had different Katikkiro who include Joash Mayanja Nkangi of the Mutima (Heart) clan, Joseph Mulwanyamuli Ssemwogerere of the Lugave (Pangolin) clan, Daniel Muliika of the Nyonyi Namunηoona (Pied Crow) clan, Eng. JB. Walusimbi of the Ffumbe (Civet Cat) clan and currently the prime minister is Charles Peter Mayiga of the Mutima (Heart) clan.
Kabaka is married to Nnaabagereka (Queen consort) Sylvia Nagginda of the Musu (Edible-rat) clan and together they have a daughter Ssangalyambogo Sarah Katrina.
During His Majesty’s formative period, he attended Buddo Junior School. As a young Prince, he was introduced to cultural exposition of the Baganda by staying in homes of prominent Chiefs for some time and also had private tuition at his father’s palace. He later left the country for the United Kingdom for further studies and upon completion he worked as a Journalist, an Associate Editor of the African Concord Magazine.
The Uganda Great40 Leaders
Public Opinions therefore present the Uganda Great40 Leaders whose names and photos have been inducted on the 2022 Uganda Great Leaders Who is Who Hall of Fame Poster.
- Rt Hon.Amama Mbabazi
Former Prime Minister of Uganda and Secretary General of NRM - Rt Hon. Anita Among Annet
Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda - Rt Hon Charles Peter Mayiga
Katikiro of Buganda Kingdom - H.E Gen Yoweri Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
President of the Republic of Uganda East Africa Peace and Development Champion - Col Dr Kiiza Besigye
Founder Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) - Dr. DianaKanzira Atwine
Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health - Mr.Edrisah Musuuza(Eddy Kenzo)
CEO Big Talent Entertainment - Mr.Edwin Karugire
Managing Partner K&K Advocates - Eng Hon Winnie Byanyima
Executive Director UNAIDS - Eng. Ziria Tibalwa Waako
CEO – Electricity Regulatory Authority - Hon Evelyn Anite Kajik
Minister of State for Investment and Privatization - Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba
Senior President Advisor in charge of Special Operations - Mr Godfrey Kirumira Kalule
Chairman Kwagalana Group, Chairman of GKK Group of Companies - H.E Natalie E. Brown
U.S. Ambassador to Uganda - Rt.Hon Thomas Tayebwa
Deputy Speaker of Parliament - Hon. Amongi BettyOngom Akena
Minister for Gender, Labour and Social Development - Hon.Janet Kataaha Museveni
First Lady of Uganda ,Minister of Education and Sports - H.E Jessica Rose Epel Alupo
Vice President of Uganda - Mr John Rujoki Musinguzi
Commissioner General Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) - Mr.Joseph Yiga
Chairman Steel and Tube Industries Ltd - Gen. Haji Hon.Abubaker Jeje Odongo
Minister of Foreign Affairs - Justice Jane Frances Abodo
Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) - Prince Kassim Nakibinge
Titular Head of the Moslems - Gen Proscovia Nalweyiso
Senior Presidential Adviser on Military matters - Dr.Margaret Blick Kigozi
Consultant at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) - Rt Hon.Nabbanja Robinah
Prime Minister Of Uganda - Mr.Odrek Mugishwa Rwabwogo
Director of Tomosi Group and Senior Presidential Advisor for Special Duties - PastorAloysius Bugingo
House of Prayer Ministries International - Mr Ramathan Ggoobi
Permanent Secretary/Secretary to the Treasury Ministry of Finance,Planning and Economic Development - Rt Hon.Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga
1st Deputy Prime Minister of Uganda and Minister for East African Community Affairs - Rt Hon.Richard Todwongo
Secretary General of theNational Resistance Movement (NRM)
Survey for the first Half of 2023 for the Uganda Great Leaders to be inducted on the Uganda Great Leaders who is Who Hall of Fame Poster and the Uganda Great Leaders Who is Who Book of Records is on. Nominate by sending names to +256701992426
- His Majesty Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II
Kabaka of Buganda Kingdom - His Majesty Oyo Nyimba Kabamba IguruRukidi IV
The King of Toro Kingdom - His Majesty Solomon Iguru I Gafabusa Amooti
The King of Bunyoro Kingdom - Hon.Ruth NankabirwaSsentamu
Minister of Energy of and Mineral Development - Gen.Salim Saleh born Akandwanaho Caleb
Chief Coordinator Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) - Dr.Sudhir Ruparelia
Chairman Ruparelia Group & Honorary Consul of the Republic of Nepal - The Most Rev. Dr. Stephen Kazimba Mugalu
The Archbishop of the Church of Uganda - Mr.Varghese Thambi
Managing Director & CEO of Diamond Trust Bank Uganda - His Majesty William Wilberforce Kadhumbula Gabula Nadiope IV
The Kyabazinga of Busoga
Recognised by
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