David Obua

(Ojijo is a lawyer, author, poet, pianist, business coach, career mentor, public speaker & strategic planning consultant:+256776100059: ojijo@allpublicspakers.com)

Soccer player

David Obua (born 10 April 1984) is a Ugandan footballer who most recently played as a Midfielder for Scottish Premier League club Hearts and the Uganda national team.

Having arrived at Hearts as a left wing-back, Obua was primarily used as a left-sided midfield player, although he also played a number of games as a striker.

 

Born in Kampala, Uganda, Obua played for a number of clubs in his native Uganda including Police FC. He also spent some time in Mauritius and in the United States, where he played for Raleigh and Wilmington Hammerheads whilst attending college.

Obua was spotted by Kaizer Chiefs while playing for the Uganda national team against South Africa and was offered a 3-year contract. Obua impressed during his time in South Africa, winning the championship and South African Player of the Year in season 2006–07.

After expiry of his Kaizer Chiefs contract he was available on a free transfer in the summer of 2008. He landed a trial with Premier League club West Ham United, before agreeing a deal with Scottish Premier League club Heart of Midlothian. On 6 August, it was revealed that Obua was granted a work permit and had signed for Hearts.

He found life in the SPL difficult in his first two seasons,[citation needed] although he did see an improvement in his form when Jim Jefferies replaced his former national manager Czaba Laszlo. In the absence of a target man, Obua has often played in the unfamiliar role of striker. Obua scored the winner in an Edinburgh derby at Easter Road, home of arch rivals Hibernian. Obua was sent off at Hearts' home match against Celtic on 11 May 2011 at an eventual 3–0 loss. He scored the opening goal of the 2011–12 SPL season against Rangers at Ibrox with a header from a corner. Obua was told in April 2012 that his contract with Hearts would not be extended.

 

David Obua began playing for the Cranes during his time at Super League club Express FC. In September 2007, Obua scored a hat-trick for Uganda in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Niger which Uganda won 3–1.[citation needed] On 10 October 2011, he reportedly refused to meet with the President of the Republic of Uganda in their training camp and also had not been in good terms with the FUFA president, he vowed never to play for Uganda again, at least while president Lawrence Mulindwa and head coach Bobby Williamson were involved with the setup.

 

Obua is the son of the late Denis Obua, who played for Uganda in the 1978 African Cup of Nations. He also has a younger brother, Eric Obua who is a Cranes youth international. His uncle John Akii-Bua became Uganda's first Olympic champion by winning the 400-metre hurdles in the world record time of 47.82 seconds at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.

John Akii-Bua

(Ojijo is a lawyer, author, poet, pianist, business coach, career mentor, public speaker & strategic planning consultant:+256776100059: ojijo@allpublicspakers.com)

Olympic athlete

John Akii-Bua (December 3, 1949 – June 20, 1997) was a Ugandan hurdler and the first Olympic champion from his country.

Having been raised in a large family, including 43 children, Akii-Bua started his athletic career as a hurdler on the short distance. Coached by British-born athletics coach Malcolm Arnold, he was introduced to the 400 m hurdles. After finishing 4th in the 1970 Commonwealth Games and running the fastest season time in 1971, he was not a big favourite for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, having limited competition experience. Nevertheless he won the final there, running the inside lane, setting a world record time of 47.82 seconds. He missed the 1976 Olympics and a show down with American rival Edwin Moses due to a boycott by African nations including Uganda.

As a police officer, Akii-Bua was promoted by Ugandan president Idi Amin, and given a house, as a reward for his athletic prowess. When the Amin regime was collapsing, he fled to Kenya with his family, fearful that he would be seen as a collaborator; this was more likely because he was a member of the Langi tribe, many of whom were persecuted by Amin, whereas Akii-Bua was cited by Amin as an example of a Langi who was doing well. However, in Kenya he was put into a refugee camp. From there, he was freed by his shoe-manufacturer Puma and lived in Germany working for Puma for 3–4 years before returning to Uganda and becoming a coach.

Akii-Bua died a widower, at the age of 47, survived by 11 of his children. He was given a state funeral.

His nephew is international footballer David Obua.

Won the gold and set a world record in the 400m hurdles in the 1972 Olympics. 

Stephen Kiprotich

(Ojijo is a lawyer, author, poet, pianist, business coach, career mentor, public speaker & strategic planning consultant:+256776100059: ojijo@allpublicspakers.com)

Olympic athlete

Stephen Kiprotich  is a Ugandan long-distance runner, born in Kapchorwa District. He is the 2012 Olympic champion in the marathon, with a winning time of 2:08:01 in hot, sunny, and humid conditions. This was the first Olympic medal for Uganda since 1996, the first gold medal since 1972, and the first ever in the marathon. His winning of the Moscow IAAF championship marathon on 17th August 2013 has made him the reigning World and Olympic marathon champion.

He is the youngest of seven children of subsistence farmers from Kapchorwa District, near the Uganda-Kenya border. As a child, he missed three years of elementary school due to an undiagnosed illness. From 2004 to 2006, he quit athletics to concentrate on school. Then, at the age of 17, he quit school and moved to the Eldoret region of Kenya, in the Rift Valley, to train for the marathon with Eliud Kipchoge. He was assisted by A Running Start, a non-profit foundation based in New York.

He ran a personal best in the marathon of 2:07:20 in 2011 at the Enschede Marathon in the Netherlands, which set a new course record for the Enschede Marathon and a new Ugandan record in athletics. He finished third in the 2012 Tokyo Marathon with a time of 2:07:50.

He was inspired in part by John Akii-Bua, the only previous Ugandan Olympic gold medalist, who won the 400 metres hurdles in the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, setting a new world record in the process. He then went on to win the London 2012 Olympic Marathon, ahead of Kenyan runners Abel Kirui and Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich who finished second and third respectively.

In 2012, Kiprotich won the Nile Special-Uspa Sports Personality of the Year award, the Ugandan sports award.

In 2013, Kiprotich won the IAAF Moscow 2013 Marathon in 2:09:51 to grab the Gold Medal.

Kiprotich is considered a national hero, mostly based upon his gold medal, but also his other athletic achievements.

Dorcus Inzikuru

 

(Ojijo is a lawyer, author, poet, pianist, business coach, career mentor, public speaker & strategic planning consultant)

Track and field athlete, Dorcus Inzikuru is a Ugandan track and field athlete competing in the steeplechase. She won the inaugural world title in women's 3000 m steeplechase, as well as the first Commonwealth title in the event. Her coach is Renato Canova.

Dorcus Inzikuru (born February 2, 1982 in Vurra, Arua District) is a Ugandan track and field athlete competing in the steeplechase. She won the inaugural world title in women's 3000 m steeplechase, as well as the first Commonwealth title in the event. Her coach is Renato Canova. Sometimes her name is spelt "Docus". It was misspelled in her passport, and the mistake was perpetuated when she entered international races.

Inzikuru won the bronze medal in the 5000 metres at the 2003 Afro-Asian Games, finishing behing Meseret Defar, and Tirunesh Dibaba. She also won at cross country, beating all-comers at the Eurocross meeting that year.

2005 World Championships

In 2005, at the World Championships, in Helsinki, Finland, Inzikuru ended Uganda's 33-year wait for an athletics world title, winning the inaugural women's 3000 m steeplechase event, in a time of 9:18.24 (at the time, the sixth best performance ever). Inzikuru only became aware of the $60,000 prize after winning the final and vowed to use her money to build a house and to help young athletes.

She had competed in the 2005 IAAF World Cross Country Championships that year but she finished in 18th place. In 2006 she won the Oeiras International Cross Country meeting, but she pulled out of that season's World Cross Country Championships.

After taking two years out from athletics, due to giving birth to her first child (Emmanuelle Munguci) and receiving treatment for sinus infections and various allergies, she returned to competition. She won an 800 metres race in Namboole on 6 June with a time of 2:12.0, later saying: "This is my first race after over two years. I am just coming back and am proud of my time. It builds my confidence". She competed sparingly over the following years and could not recapture her steeplechase form, recording season's best of 9:53.02 and 9:54.50 minutes in 2010 and 2011.

She returned to the top level of the sport in 2012, running a time of 9:30.95 minutes for the steeplechase and qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics. The event had moved on since her championship win, however, and she was not fast enough to reach the final. She ran at the major Weltklasse and Internationales Stadionfest meetings in Germany after the Olympic Games, but barely managed to reach the top ten. In 2013 she attempted to reinvigorate her career with a switch to the marathon, but on her debut at the Brighton Marathon she finished with a time of 2:42:38 hours, missing her target of the Ugandan record.

Inzikuru grew up in Vurra, in Arua District, the daughter of an Anglican priest. Her parents were both talented athletes, but did not compete internationally. She was the third of eight children, but lost her two older brothers at the ages of eight and fourteen, to typhoid and malaria.

Inzikurru is now married to a doctor, Martin Bosco Acidri, a former sprinter. Inzikuru often lives and trains in Turin and competes for the Milan club, Camelot. She often trains with men's world record holder, Saif Saaeed Shaheen, as the two share the same coach, Renato Canova.

Achievements

3000 m Steeplechase[edit source | editbeta]

2005 World Championships, Gold (9:18.24)

2005 World Athletics Final, Gold

2006 Commonwealth Games, Gold (9:19.51

3000 m[edit source | editbeta]

1999 World Youth Championships, 8th

5000 m[edit source | editbeta]

1999 African Games, 6th

2000 World Junior Championships, Gold

2002 Commonwealth Games, 4th

2002 African Games, Silver

2003 Afro-Asian Games, Bronze

Cross Country[edit source | editbeta]

2000 World Junior Championships, 10th

2004 World Championships (short course), 38th

2005 World Championships (short course), 18th

2007 World Championships, DNF

Personal bests

800 m, 2:02.00

One Mile, 4:36.05

3000 m, 8:46.29

5000 m, 15:05.30

2000 m Steeplechase, 6:04.46

3000 m Steeplechase, 9:15.04

Charles Lwanga Mark Olweny

(Ojijo is a lawyer, author, poet, pianist, business coach, career mentor, public speaker & strategic planning consultant)

Charles Lwanga Mark Olweny is a Ugandan physician, academic and medical researcher. Currently he is a professor of medicine and vice chancellor at Uganda Martyrs University, based at Nkozi, Mpigi District, in Central Uganda.

 

He was born in 1944, in Tororo, Tororo District, in Eastern Uganda.

 

Professor Olweny attended St. Peter's College Tororo for his O-Level education (S1-S4). He attended St. Mary's College Kisubi for his A-Level classes (S5-S6). He then entered Makerere University School of Medicine, the oldest medical school in Uganda, which was founded in 1924.

 

He obtained the degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB). Later, he obtained the degree of Master of Medicine in Internal Medicine (MMed). He followed that with the degree of Doctor of Medicine (MD), all from Makerere University. Olweny's chosen specialty is medical oncology.

 

In 1982, Olweny traveled to Australia and, while there, he studied for and was awarded the degree of Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP) by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, based in Sydney, Australia.

 

Charles Olweny served as the director of the Uganda Cancer Institute, from 1972 until 1982. Under his stewardship, the team of Ugandan medical researchers that he led were the first group to demonstrate that liver cancer could be successfully treated with chemotherapy using the drug doxorubicin, which is still the mainstay of treatment for liver cancer today. They were also able to confirm that Burkitt lymphoma could be cured with a high dose of chemotherapy and showed that the same was true for childhood Hodgkin disease. They documented the incidence of endemic Kaposi sarcoma in children and conducted clinical trials on how to treat it.

 

During the same timeframe, Olweny served — first as a lecturer, then senior lecturer and later as professor of Medicine — in the Faculty of Internal Medicine, at Makerere University School of Medicine, serving as head of department, from 1979 until 1982. While in Australia, during the 1980s, he served as clinical professor at the Department of Medicine & Surgery, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia. He also served as senior director for Medical Oncology, Cancer Control Programme, Royal Adelaide Hospital.

 

In the 1990s, Dr. Olweny migrated to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to take up appointment as medical oncologist at St. Boniface General Hospital, in Winnipeg. He also served as coordinator, Section of Hematology & Oncology at CancerCare Manitoba, and as an associate staff at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg. He was appointed to his present position in 2006 and assumed office in September of that year.

 

Professor Olweny has published widely in professional journals and has over 120 articles

 

Amos Nzeyi

 

Nzeyi is the chairman and owner of Crown Beverages, Uganda’s sole bottler of PepsiCo products.

 

Madhvani’s

 

One of the best-known business names in Uganda is the Madhvani Group, which employs over 10,000 people and is a major contributor to the government’s revenues. The Madhvani family, originally from India, has been in business in Uganda for more than half a century.

By the 1960s, the family had built a huge commercial empire in Uganda and East Africa. When Idi Amin expelled all the Asians in 1972, the Madhvanis fled to Britain. They did not return until the mid-1980s at the invitation of President Museveni. There was no sugarcane, the factory was looted, there were no roads and few people. But we took up the challenge because we thought this country had great potential in agriculture.

The Kakira Sugar Works at Jinja and the associated sugar plantations employ the majority of the 10,000 people who work for the group. Together with the outgrowers and their families, the Madhvani Group supports around 40,000 local people. The group provides free schooling, healthcare, training and scholarships to promising pupils. The family foundation has donated several buildings in Kampala to the government. Although initial financial support to rebuild the core of his industrial empire came partly from the government, Mr. Madhvani stresses that he is currently seeking to initiate joint ventures with foreign private investors ready to take advantage of the group’s widely diversified interests.

The range of products the company is involved in includes edible oils, confectionery and soap, as well as steel manufacturing, metal products, glassware, packaging, tea, flour, brewing, floriculture, insurance and a TV station. ‘’We are ideally positioned to identify partners who wish to do business in Uganda in some of these areas,’´ he adds.

The group’s core businesses, however, are based on agriculture and tourism ’· two sectors which Mr. Madhvani says Uganda has yet to exploit to the full. Tourism in Uganda is developing, but its still relatively virgin territory. ’´

The group owns two luxury hotels, the Paraa Safari Lodge in northern Uganda and the Mweya Safari Lodge in western Uganda, which is an ideal base from which to track mountain gorillas. One of the most important things we have in Uganda are the facilities for tracking gorillas. There are very few of these primates left in the world, and they are a big selling point, ’´ Mr. Madhvani says. He adds: We are not looking at Uganda as a main destination, but as a springboard for Kenya and Tanzania. Tourists can visit Uganda directly from there ’´ Mr. Madhvani wants to see easier access for tourists traveling between these east African countries. The government has got to set up a good infrastructure to encourage the free movement of tourists across the borders, ’´ he says.

 

 

Madhvani’s

 

One of the best-known business names in Uganda is the Madhvani Group, which employs over 10,000 people and is a major contributor to the government’s revenues. The Madhvani family, originally from India, has been in business in Uganda for more than half a century.

By the 1960s, the family had built a huge commercial empire in Uganda and East Africa. When Idi Amin expelled all the Asians in 1972, the Madhvanis fled to Britain. They did not return until the mid-1980s at the invitation of President Museveni. There was no sugarcane, the factory was looted, there were no roads and few people. But we took up the challenge because we thought this country had great potential in agriculture.

The Kakira Sugar Works at Jinja and the associated sugar plantations employ the majority of the 10,000 people who work for the group. Together with the outgrowers and their families, the Madhvani Group supports around 40,000 local people. The group provides free schooling, healthcare, training and scholarships to promising pupils. The family foundation has donated several buildings in Kampala to the government. Although initial financial support to rebuild the core of his industrial empire came partly from the government, Mr. Madhvani stresses that he is currently seeking to initiate joint ventures with foreign private investors ready to take advantage of the group’s widely diversified interests.

The range of products the company is involved in includes edible oils, confectionery and soap, as well as steel manufacturing, metal products, glassware, packaging, tea, flour, brewing, floriculture, insurance and a TV station. ‘’We are ideally positioned to identify partners who wish to do business in Uganda in some of these areas,’´ he adds.

The group’s core businesses, however, are based on agriculture and tourism ’· two sectors which Mr. Madhvani says Uganda has yet to exploit to the full. Tourism in Uganda is developing, but its still relatively virgin territory. ’´

The group owns two luxury hotels, the Paraa Safari Lodge in northern Uganda and the Mweya Safari Lodge in western Uganda, which is an ideal base from which to track mountain gorillas. One of the most important things we have in Uganda are the facilities for tracking gorillas. There are very few of these primates left in the world, and they are a big selling point, ’´ Mr. Madhvani says. He adds: We are not looking at Uganda as a main destination, but as a springboard for Kenya and Tanzania. Tourists can visit Uganda directly from there ’´ Mr. Madhvani wants to see easier access for tourists traveling between these east African countries. The government has got to set up a good infrastructure to encourage the free movement of tourists across the borders, ’´ he says.

 

 

The Mukwano’s (Alykhan Karmali and Amirali Karmali)

 

Uganda’s list of the rich and famous would be incomplete without Alykhan Karmali and Amirali Karmali. This duo, popularly known as the Mukwanos, is the most successful father and son business partnership today. They own the Mukwano Group of Companies, one of the biggest conglomerates in Uganda. It comprises: Mukwano Enterprises Ltd, A.K. Transporters Ltd, A.K. Oils & Fats (U) Ltd, A.K. Plastics (U) Ltd, A.K. Detergent (U) Ltd, Mukwano Sweets & Confectioneries (U) Ltd, Rwenzori Commodities Ltd and Mukwano Forex Bureau Ltd.

As is the norm with the rich, it is not easy to establish their bank balance, but with more than 10,000 employees on its payroll and payment of over Shs 40 billion in taxes annually, it’s safe to assume that the Karmalis will not starve even if they chose not to work another day. Like many tycoons, the Karmalis neither like to talk about their wealth, careers nor their family history.

However, a recent article in the East African newspaper gives an insight into how they made their money. Legend has it that a Mr Ali Mohamed Karmali, a pioneer Indian Investor who came to Uganda in 1904, laid the foundation of the empire. After working as a shop assistant in Jinja, he shifted to Mbarara, before settling in Bukandula, in Mpigi district, where in partnership with other Asian families, he did a roaring trade in cotton and coffee.

Mr Karmali was reportedly so popular with the locals that they nicknamed him Mukwano gwa bangi (a friend of many), ’´ later shortened to ’Mukwano’´. It is also here that Mr Amirali Karmali was born in the mid-1930s.The business took off when the family moved to Fort Portal, where the young Karmali, acquired a second-hand truck and begun to transport produce for sale in Kampala.

Soon after, he expanded to western Uganda and some areas of Eastern Congo and thereafter moved to Kampala, where he opened his first shop under the business name Egesa Commercial Agencies.

In 1995 Mzee Mukwano relinquished control of the Group to his son, Alykhan Karmali and became its chairman. He now spends most of his time in Fort Portal, growing and processing tea for export

The Mehta's

In his autobiography, Dreams Half Expressed, Nanji Kalidas Mehta said:

“The way to success is a hard road to travel. Disappointments and failures dishearten us in the midst of struggle but a man of enterprise has to pass through the period with patience and cheerfulness till he gets his well deserved returns.”

Nanji Kalidas Mehta had a simple family background but patience and cheerfulness enabled to pioneer into the sugar industry in Uganda. He came as a young Indian merchant who sailed to East Africa in a country craft nearly a century ago.

In 1912 at the age of 12, he landed at Port Tanga in Tanzania after a long journey from India. He proceeded with his journey on foot to Uganda where he entered through Eastern Uganda. As a youth, he wondered into thick forests in Uganda, including Mabira, up to the grasslands where he established a chain of 29 ginneries and plantations. His son Mehendra, the current Chairman of the Mehta Group, has similar capabilities.

Mehta settled in Lugazi because the weather was conducive for sugarcane growing. He reportedly established the first sugar factory in 1924 under the name Uganda Sugar Factory and by 1971 the factory produced 60,000 metric tonnes of sugar per annum.

Mehta was one of the first exporters of Uganda’s cotton to Japan and other places which greatly helped in the establishment of the cotton industry in Uganda. It was cotton, coffee and copper that formed the foundation of Uganda’s pre-independence economy.

The Community Centre in Mukono where district council meetings are held was a gift from the Mehta Group. The magnificent library at Gayaza High School was donated by the Mehtas. They also donated the land in front of Sheraton Hotel to Kampala City Council. They have maintained the roads throughout the sugarcane grown areas to all-weather standards. In the coming few years the company will work on improving water supply and rural electrification in areas that will be producing sugarcane on outgrower basis.

Schools and dispensaries will be established in new areas for the benefit of workers and their families.

Ashish J. Thakkar

(ojijo-lawyer, public speaker, author, poet, pianist, business coach, career mentor, strategic planning consultant)

He is a serial entrepreneur who started his first company at the age of 15. Ashish considers himself a native son of Africa with strong Indian roots, of British nationality and a resident of the UAE. Ashish J. Thakkar emerged the first African ever to be named in Fortune Magazine’s prestigious annual 40 Under 40 list which features young hotshots around the globe who are leading businesses as diverse as air travel, natural gas, and genetic coding, as well as government. Born in the United Kingdom, Ashish and his family moved back to Africa after surviving the historic Rwandan genocide and generational exile of African families. He grew up in the UK and Uganda and now lives in Dubai.

Ashish devotes much of his energy to commercial and philanthropic initiatives in Africa. He has also been appointed on the advisory panels to several heads of state in sub-Saharan Africa and is also a team member of the Commonwealth Business Council and COMESA. Ashish has been profiled by several publications and media outlets including Forbes, The Economist, CNN, Africa Business Journal, Ventures Africa, San Jose Mercury, Reuters and the BBC.

 

The culmination of Ashish J. Thakkar's business achievements has been instituting Mara Foundation, the nonprofit social enterprise of Mara Group which focuses on emerging African entrepreneurs. The Foundation works to create sustainable economic and business development opportunities for young business owners via its Mara Launchpad incubation centres and Mara Launch Fund.

His company, Mara Group, a 16 year-old pan-African multi-sector business conglomerate with perations in 26 countries spanning four continents. Mara’s current businesses operate in a broad range of sectors including information technology (IT) services, business process outsourcing (BPO), a multi-faceted mobile-enabled online platform, agriculture, real estate, hospitality, packaging and asset management.

Mara Group has received global recognition for its achievements and contributions not only in Africa but also worldwide. In 2010, Mara Group was identified by the World Economic Forum as a dynamic high-growth company with the potential to be a driving force for economic and social change. Ashish J. Thakkar was appointed as a World Economic Forum Global Young Leader.

In the near future, Ashish J. Thakkar will represent East Africa on Virgin Galactic's mission into space, thereby making him Africa’s second astronaut.In 1996, Ashish borrowed $6,000 to start his first IT company whereby he bought and sold computers. Within a year, he transitioned from a high school student to a full-time entrepreneur.

Ashish J. Thakkar has earned an unprecedented amount of international press recognition in recent times for his remarkable business success and his work in grooming young African entrepreneurs. And he has a remarkable story. After surviving the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Ashish moved to Kampala, Uganda with his family. During High School in Kampala, Ashish began selling computers to his classmates and friends.

That computer trading business formed the earliest foundation of the Mara Group – a Pan-African conglomerate that is actively involved in everything from manufacturing to agriculture to property development and Information Technology. The group has total assets in excess of $1 billion and over 7,500 employees across 21 African countries.

The group’s charity arm, the Mara Foundation focuses on entrepreneurship and education. Among other things, the Mara Foundation provides comprehensive support services including mentorship, funding, incubation center workspace and business training to African entrepreneurs mainly in East Africa.

Ashish is truly putting Africa on the map and getting Africa recognized globally in a postivie sense.

 

Uganda’s Legendary Achievers

 

 

 

 

 

(ojijo-pianist, author, poet, lawyer,  public speaker, career mentor, business coach)

 

There are two types of people, the great men, and the little men. The great men invent, create, lead, and transform. They influence and inspire to empower. They are more than successful; they make others successful.  They are men and women, single or married, religious or not, young and old, who have risen above all odds, conquered their worst fears, and achieved their utmost dreams and goals. They have made tremendous achievements and continue to make an impact in their careers wherever they live. They are like me; even I can succeed, no matter my tribe, sex, nationality, age or religion.

Success knows no tribe or race.

Fame belongs to all religions, local or foreign.

Wealth can be attained by any sex, male or female.

Money is accessible to all age groups, at any age group.