Kawesa adds value to handymen

Arnold Kawesa says the trade has taught him not to delegate responsibilities. PHOTO BY EDGAR R. BATTE

What you need to know:

  • Background. Kawesa was born on November 24, 1988 to John Kawesa, a businessman and Robinah Kigoonya, a social worker. He is inspired by his parents hardwork and shaping him into the man he has become.
  • Schools attended. He attended school at Kampala Kindergarten for pre-primary, Kampala Parents’ School for primary school, King’s College Budo for Ordinary Level (O’ Level) and Ndejje Secondary School for Advanced Level (A’ Level) before leaving the country for further studies in Malaysia.
  • Motivation. He is driven by the uncertainty of life.

As a boy, Arnold Kawesa always followed his father to construction sites. His father was into real estate. At an early age, something started building inside Kawesa, an idea that he would one day run his own company. He was only seven years old and it was not clear how he would achieve his dream.
Years later, as a student in Malaysia, Kawesa always hated the emptiness the four-month long summer season brought with it. It was a break from studies so he went out looking to expand his network.
Among the people he met was the late Hajah Norah, Uganda’s then consular in Malaysia. When they talked, she realised the young man was enthusiastic about work so he interested Kawesa in helping out at the consulate.

At the time, the consulate was running on a tight budget and Norah could do with an extra volunteer, so he was more like a liaison officer with no salary but willing to do errands from which he would be appreciated with a tip or commission.
“Miss Norah was motherly but strict. She gave me the chance to work as an interpreter, chauffeur and help out on issues to do with visas,” he recalls. And as he diligently delivered on assignments given to him, Norah got to trust him.
That is how the two became friends. And while he made fruitful engagement of his time, he got to make more friends, some diplomats, ministers, MPs and dignitaries who visited or frequented the consulate for different reasons.
After acquiring a degree in international business at Limkok Wing University of Creative Technology, Kawesa pursued a Master’s degree of science in construction at the same university.

Rude awakening
When he returned to Uganda, he banked on the big shots he had chauffeured and interacted with while at the consulate, for job opportunities. He was wrong. He had to burn more rubber on Kampala’s streets like many job hunters, for an opportunity for a day job.
He was perhaps avoiding to work for his father. The realities pushed him to work with his father as he supervised construction sites and human resource.
Kawesa was keen to learn from his father; taking stock, mixing ratios in the mortar, record keeping and payments and more. This was the gestation period for his entrepreneurial head start.
He saw the way his father and his team did things and realised there was a gap, and an opportunity he could capitalise on. He looked at the way workers treated clients. They would be given a job and sometimes not do it to the finer details or give an excuse for not turning up at all.
“They were skilled but not professional. I was thinking of ways to professionalise fundis,” he recounts. A fundi is a handyman who offers skills in plumbing, electrical mechanics, landscaping, plastering, painters and the like. He wanted to give good service and win trust.

Breaking out
Besides his father’s mentorship, Kawesa also participated in the Nile Breweries Limited’s Kick Start programme, which sought to support young entrepreneurs with business ideas in the form of grants. He participated but did not win.
After the project, he called his sister and asked her for a loan. He used the US$1,000 lent to him to register a company- Handymen Uganda, with a strategic partner- Natalie Bitature.
She had just registered Tateru, a real estate company, which meant that under the partnership, Kawesa would offer handymen services to Bitature’s clients. The beginning was not smooth. He battled challenging times with passion.

Lessons
Kampala is a jungle in which he had to manoeuvre. He thought that bids and contracts were straight, with no red tape or underhand methods. “It was heart-breaking. I kept writing proposals to different companies and individuals. I was not getting any contracts for a long time,” he says.
Then someone called, another and a few others, who offered small but encouraging projects. One day someone called with a big contract. He wanted a boundary wall erected around his eight acres in Bugolobi. Kawesa was excited.
He was paid the amount he quoted- Shs60m, and saved 20 per cent of it.
He had 40 men on site; masons and other labourers. We meet at an uptown restaurant and metres away, is a house which he is remodelling into a hotel. He is happily putting in hours of hard work.

Once, before, he lost a fortune to a job that went wrong. He delegated his team on site and while he went away to supervise more work, the painters put a coating on a pasted wall.
“We had to buy paste and restore the wall. A jerry can of paste costs Shs200,000, so we lost all the profit in having to repeat the job. What hurt me more is that I had fought tooth and nail to get the contract. That taught me never to delegate. I had to apologise to the client severally,” the lead handyman explains.
Kawesa also learnt that there is no growth in the comfort zone. “It is okay to make mistakes but important to learn from them. If you fail, don’t quit. Get ideas off the paper. Time is of value,” he advises.
His wish list includes undertaking projects to give back to society, especially Buganda Kingdom. When he is not talking business or work, his friends will be trying to quieten him because, to his admission, he is a noise maker who enjoys a cold beer in his spare time.