NEWS EDITOR
ADVOCATE Francis K. Buwule of Buwule & Mayiga Co. Advocates has written a book on Buganda Kingdom Premier Charles Peter Mayiga’s rise to the Katikkiroship, the most powerful office at the Kingdom’s Headquarters in Bulange – Mengo showing he was identified from Kikuubo to serve Kabaka.
The book is titled, “MAYIGA: A Transformational Katikkiro.”
At a function held to launch it, Advocate Buwule said the book chronicles their relationship with Katikkiro Mayiga, the issues that tested their friendship, the businesses they do together, and what he thinks of Mayiga as Katikkiro.
“It is a jaw dropping book”, writes Denis Jjuuko from the office of the Katikkiro.
Buwule tells a story about Owek. Mayiga, new to ears of many.
DP President General Norbert Mao has said, “No one is better qualified than Francis Buwule to write about Charles Peter Mayiga. This Katikkiro is the quintessential Mr. Straight Talk.”
“The Katikkiro still has a strong bond and relationship with his fellow learned Counsel Buwule for decades! This is a vivid example of his Obuyiiya, Obunyiikivu n’Obweerufu! I pity the idlers who have no work and no business Partners attacking our BEST Katikkiro.” Emanuel Pius Ssentongo has tweeted.
MAYIGA & BUWULE
Francis Buwule met Charles Peter Mayiga at Makerere University Law school and they became friends.
After graduating at Law Development Centre (LDC), Buwule worked at Katende & Ssempebwa Co. Advocates, one of leading law firms in Uganda.
For Mayiga, he got a job at the Ministry of Justice as a State Attorney, but did not last long and he left to start a business in Kikuubo, Kampala selling wheat and sugar. In Kikuubo, he met businessmen like John Fred Kiyimba Freeman, Wilson Mukiibi Muzzanganda, Guster Lule and others, almost same names on Buganda Twezimbe Committee led by Omuk. Fred Kiyimba.
Buwule was unhappy with Mayiga’s decision to go to Kikuubo. Unlike today, Kikuubo was mainly for informal traders majority of whom hadn’t got the kind of qualifications Mayiga and Freeman Kiyimba had.
Buwule considered Mayiga too bright and sophisticated to sell wheat and sugar.
MAYIGA IDENTIFIED
At Katende & Ssempebwa Co. Advocates, one of the founders, Owek. John W. Katende tasked Buwule to identify a young smart lawyer to work as Administrative Secretary to then Ssaabataka Supreme Council (SSC), the precursor to the restored Buganda Lukiiko. Buwule submitted a list with only one name — Charles Peter Mayiga.
John W. Katende invited Mayiga for a meeting. Rev Dan. Kajumba was on the panel. Mayiga accepted the interview mainly as way of stopping Buwule from nagging him.
At the interview, Mayiga impressed his interviewers. With his Kikuubo business, he said money wasn’t a motivation but he felt he needed to right the wrongs of Obote. Mayiga had grown up in a home where the 1966 crisis was a always a topic of discussion on the dinner table.
Unknown to Mayiga, by accepting to be the first employee to work in the soon to be reinstated Kingdom, he had signed a lifetime contract to serve Buganda.
Just before he was appointed Katikkiro in May 2013, Mayiga had told Buwule that he wanted to quit and fully concentrate on his businesses.
BUWULE & MAYIGA CO. ADVOCATES
In 1993, Mayiga called Buwule and over a drink, Mayiga asked his friend when they will start a law firm. They identified three other friends including Owek Apollo Nelson Makubuya to be partners.
The three friends pulled out leaving Buwule and Mayiga to go on their own. This delayed the start of Buwule & Mayiga Company Advocates by a few months.
In 1994, Buwule left Katende & Ssempebwa Co. Advocates and with Mayiga, they started their law firm.
Mayiga often jokes to ‘his brother’ Buwule that hadn’t it been him, he would be owning many malls in Kampala. Buwule usually responds that because of him, Mayiga superintends over the biggest mall in Uganda — Buganda Kingdom.
