PROJECT SUCCESS: It was a family affair for the Kabumbas

At first, he did not replicate the top grades – apparently because he was down with malaria during the examination season. But by the end of his course, Mr Busingye was one of only two students in his class who were awarded first class degrees.

“That is why University is fair; it is a cumulative grade point average. A-Level may not be very fair because the people who were the best at the end of the year may not have been the best through out but because you are lucky that time and spotted well. So the fact that I did not do very well in the first semester did not mean I would not perform well in the end,” he said.

After graduating from the Law Development Centre with a post-graduate diploma in legal practice in July 2006, Mr Busingye immediately went to the United Kingdom to study a bachelor of civil law degree at Oxford University, courtesy of a Shell Centenary Scholarship. Around the same time, Mr Busingye’s girlfriend gave birth to his first child.

When he completed the Oxford course in July 2007, Mr Busingye was offered a grant ($40,000 or Shs80 million) and a loan ($20,000 or Shs40 million) by Harvard University in the United States to pursue a master of laws. Mr Busingye is expected to repay the loan over a 20-year period.

Before returning to Uganda in December 2008, Mr Busingye worked in the Project Finance and Capital Markets departments of top London law firm, Clifford Chance. Between January and August 2009, Mr Busingye worked at a local law firm but says he quit law practice after realising that “it was not my thing.”

He then returned to Makerere University’s Law Faculty as a lecturer.
“(The law firm) was really very generous; they gave me good bonuses but when I think about the value of what I was doing, I could not reconcile it with myself,” he said. “I thought that with what I had been given (at University), I can contribute in a more meaningful way to society. The money at Makerere may be less but at least you know that you are doing something with your life.”

Mr Busingye says he does not believe in juggling his law practice with teaching at Makerere because one of the two is likely to suffer due to his busy schedule.

“In terms of honesty and giving the best back, you cannot do both. You find teachers coming with yellow notes of what they have taught for a long time yet cases are changing. You should choose something you are good at and do it well,” he said.

Giving back
The idea of giving back is one that Mr Busingye has taken to heart since most of his post-secondary school education was funded under different sponsorship arrangements. Mr Busingye says he, for instances, pays tuition for his house maid.

“It was good to get funding. That is why I believe we must give back to society. If some white man who didn’t know me at all put aside some money for me to go to school, how much more should I give to a fellow Ugandan who I know,” he said. “That is why I am paying back in my small way. It does not have to be something big. I have started with the people closest to me.”

Mr Busingye says his plan in the long term is to be “a leader of thought” for Ugandan society, although he hastens to add that he does not plan to go into politics.

“We need some people who can step back and do some thinking on behalf of society because many people are too busy either with politics or making money to think about where our society is going. I am trying to contribute to public discourse,” said Mr Kabumba, who is a member of the NTV panel of experts.

Mr Busingye’s brother, Mr Kwesiga, is now an engineer with Mantrac Uganda.

With Mr Kwesiga now in his second year of a masters programme in accounting, roles have now been reversed. But Mr Kwesiga is content because his time practising engineering has led him to discovering another passion.

“After doing engineering, I decided to practice and see what it is in Uganda in engineering. So based on my analysis of the situation, post-graduate studies in engineering are not what I wanted to do,” said Mr Kwesiga, who recently completed a Certified Public Accountants of Uganda-CPA (U) course.
holuka@monitor.co.ug