Nyombi Thembo’s journey to owning beautiful homes

“I love beautiful homes. Since I was a child, I have desired to live in good places. This was informed by my extensive travels. When I started working, I was lucky to start travelling a lot. At one time, I was an executive assistant to the Managing Director (MD) of Uganda Railway Corporation so I would move so regularly,” Nyombi Thembo, a politician and economist who has been in service for 33 years, explains.

During the travels, he would spend time in good hotels, not far from his bosses; he served under four MDs. When time came to build his own home, he was inspired to replicate some of the interior design and general structural ideas. As such, he started saving towards achieving such plans.

“I developed that sort of touch, and since then, I have built and lived in homes I love. This is my fourth,” he gestures with open arms in his lavish living room with its gleaming floor, beautiful chandelier and décor with patterns of brown, gold and black colours.

The living room is spacious and it is easy to see the decorator was going for a minimalist theme with carefully chosen pieces that complement each other.  Adjacent to the living room is the dining area and next to it is the television room.

There is a staircase that leads to another floor. At its base, are potted flower vases. The walls that lead up to the master bedroom, are dotted with a number of photographs of the Thembos; Nyombi and his wife, Angella, along with their immediate family as well as different moments in their lives.

Getting there

“The time we furnished this house, the local market did not have such good things. We had to import some from Spain, China, the United Kingdom and Malaysia. But many of these are locally available today and for the projects I am undertaking, I do not have to import many of the furnishings,” says Thembo.

He notes that the carpentry and joinery work has improved since the establishment of the Buy Uganda, Build Uganda (BUBU) initiative. “We have seen phenomenal improvement in our people’s craftsmanship. You do not need to import chairs from abroad, maybe if you are building a palace,” he states. 

The couple has four homes. We meet at the one in Ntinda.

 “We have another in Entebbe where we stay during the weekend, my first home in Lungujja and another in the village, Kasanda,” explains the 57-year-old politician who is currently serving as director, Universal Access Fund with Uganda Communications Commission (UCC).

Each of the homes is named after the couple’s four children. In a short while, he plans on turning the homes into commercial establishments. He says Ntinda has been turned into largely rental space for offices and business hubs so he is planning to turn his home into a commercial space too.

Changing landscape

“When we came here 10 years ago, this place was very quiet. Now Ntinda is becoming commercial. Actually, we have realised that there are a few homes still used as residential so we are planning not to be here in the next five years. That is what is happening to my Lungujja home too,” Thembo shares.

He plans on remodeling part of the Lungujja home as a retirement office space. The home sits on 0.7 acres of land. “

Building has been a journey of putting one and one together. Nobody gets the money all at once. We built the Ntinda home with my current wife, seven years back. She was my companion for a long time. We are not very wealthy people. It has been about passion and sacrifice,” the former minister and stage performer, adds.

The Ntinda home sits on 1.2 acres. He bought the land in 2004 at about a tenth of the current price; an acre in Ntinda goes for about Shs1.2b. The couple had originally bought a house shell in Naguru but with children coming in, the place grew smaller and thus the need to look for a slightly bigger place.

While the wife took the lead in putting up the home, Thembo says he played a supportive role. At the same time, he took the lead in putting up their home in Entebbe (Bwerenga) which sits on five acres.

“It was really challenging so we put resources together. My wife is a business person so we pool resources together,” he shares.

Lessons

The journey has taught him many lessons.  “The first thing is to (really) know what you exactly want. I always tell people that you are your own architect. When you know what you want, you share your vision with your architect in very clear terms. The clearer you are to the architect, the neater the final product. When you give ambiguous plans to the architect, they will give you what they want,” Thembo says.

He adds that in all the four homes he has built, he has been keen on supervision of the sites in order to achieve his vision.

 “When you look at this house (Ntinda), you see Angella’s taste. We have slightly different tastes. When you go to Bwerenga, you will see mine taking lead. In others, you will see a combination of our tastes. We are becoming older and learning from each other,” he says.

He is a minimalist in taste while she is into grandeur things. “Here (in Ntinda), we didn’t go for the extreme grandeur. I used a bit of my minimalist approach. At the end of the day, we end up having a product that makes both of us happy,” Thembo says of their décor.

Advice

Thembo stresses that when building, one should work with professionals.

“We have worked with Engineer Jimmy Kaweesa for a long time. He is such a wonderful engineer. He has a company called New Dimensions. He has been our core person; professional, knowledgeable and creative,” Thembo gushes.

Thembo says that since 1989, he has used only three masons because of their professionalism and integrity. He has managed to keep them because he pays them well, according to market rates and their margin.

The real estate market

Thembo has a foot in real estate, a venture he treats as a modest investment. “The level of my real estate is still a weak man’s business. I am risk-averse so I am putting my money where I am sure I will not lose it at all and enjoy it for a lifetime. Although the return on investment is low, the risk is low, or sometimes not there at all,” he elaborates.

He says the trend in the sector for those emerging like himself, is demand for furnished apartments.

“People are taking longer to have children so one-bedroomed apartments are becoming a hot thing especially for corporates who have just joined the labour market. That shows how demographics are changing. In my days, immediately you left university, you wanted a three-bedroomed apartment because you knew that in a few years you would be having a clan of children,” he says.

He also observes that the other trend is an observation of commercial properties ‘getting out’ of the CBD and the ripple effect of small trading centres becoming major centres.

He cites places such as Kyengera, Kajjansi, Matugga and Buloba becoming independent commercial areas. “Where we have been investing in Naguru, Ntinda, Najjera, the choices are now becoming wider because business is seriously moving out of town. Those are interesting trends which we will need to analyse, especially for those who have pennies to push into real estate,” he notes.

And if Thembo had Shs1b today, and had to make a choice between buying land in Naguru or Bombo, he would not think twice about buying the one in Bombo because the land there is still gaining value.

“The land in Naguru, Kololo, Nakasero has reached its optimal value,” he observes, explaining that different factors, including the construction of express highways with interchanges, have opened up areas in the suburbs and beyond, stretching to as far as Jinja, on the shorelines of Lake Victoria.

Part of his business acumen is tree growing which he has done for the last 20 years in Mubende. That is in addition to real estate ventures. He is investing in the hospitality industry; Kikorongo Safari Lodge and Munyanyange Caves Lodge in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Tirenga Safari Lodge in Murchison Falls National Park and plans to put up one in Kidepo Valley National Park and in Virunga National Park.