UGANDA, Kampala | Real Muloodi News | Hosting several maisonettes, each on its compound, Mugoya Estate is a middle-class gated community that sits at the heart of Nairobi’s South C.
However, little is known about the Ugandan billionaire, James Mugoya Isabirye, for whom the estate is named.
An engineer and entrepreneur born in Eastern Uganda in 1950, Mugoya finished his primary education and joined Kings College Budo for his secondary education. Kings College Budo is a school for the affluent in Uganda. As the name suggests, only money and brains were the two keys that could find a way through the doors of this prestigious school.
Mugoya later joined the University of Nairobi, where he pursued a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering. At that time, Kenya and Uganda were not in the best terms. The young man in a foreign land could not imagine that would be the hallmark of his purple patch.
However, while a student at the University of Nairobi, Mugoya made friends, one of which happened to be the son of the then Vice President and future President Daniel Arap Moi. He maintained the friendship and with it came a bag of goodies.
Mugoya turned Kenya into his major business base and after graduation, he incorporated Mugoya Construction and Engineering Limited. Through his cordial ties with the first family, his business was awarded a series of lucrative government and private sector contracts that many would only dream about. He became a wealthy man.
Mugoya Construction is behind some of the most iconic buildings in Nairobi, including Times Tower, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) building, Hazina Estate, Moi High School, Kabarak University, and the Kisumu Provincial Headquarters.
In 1995, NSSF awarded Mugoya a contract to construct 265 houses in Karen, together with an administration block, a clubhouse, and a kindergarten. However, the project did not kick off due to pending approvals from Nairobi City Council.
In 2012, the Ugandan tycoon received Ksh 342 million in an out-of-court settlement for the NSSF project. He had initially claimed Ksh 633 million.
In 2001, he hit the government with a Ksh1.9 billion claim regarding a contract awarded to him in 1990 to construct a building meant to serve as an annex to the Treasury building.
Following the changes in the government in Kenya, where Mugoya’s company was established and where most of his businesses were, contracts dwindled and Mugoya made plans to move back to Uganda. However, in Uganda too, the Nsimbe Estate joint venture he had started with the National Social Security Fund (Uganda), was ruled illegal by Ugandan authorities and was scuttled.
In 2018, Mugoya, together with a member of the UAE Royal Family, claimed prime plots valued at Ksh20 billion on which they built the Hilton Upper Hill Tower. They claim the developer who owns the parcel of land allegedly encroached on and took over two other adjacent plots.
He liquidated his company in 2015 owing to accrued debt, including Ksh324 million compensation paid to NSSF.
The Ugandan billionaire has frequently wrestled with the law in Kenya and Uganda being in and out of courts of law.
In Kenya, they charged him with selling off construction machinery worth Ksh3.5 billion that had been charged to a Kenyan bank. However, this case was dismissed on August 21, 2021.
In Uganda, a court determined that he had questions to answer for allegedly operating an illegal joint real estate venture valued at Ksh149 million (Ush 8 billion).
However, despite the above, he remains celebrated in Uganda. Many remember Mugoya for rebuilding Bugabawe Primary School in 1994. This was after a pupil had lost his life when a roof collapsed during a heavy downpour. He demolished the dilapidated structures in the school and constructed new ones in their stead.
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