By Staff Writer
In the aftermath of Bank of Uganda taking over Crane Bank, there was a rift between two of Uganda’s richest men. This rift would also go on to mark the collapse of the Kwagalana group. These two rich men were none other than Godfrey Kirumira and Sudhir Ruparelia.
At the time, it was becoming evident that Sudhir would end up in Luzira prison. Many of his friends would immediately begin to distance themselves from him as they saw his as some kind of plague at the time. “Sudhir was being isolated, no one wanted to even be pictured with him. BOU at the time had vowed to pursue him to the last property he owned in town,” says our source.
At the time, there were series of meetings that took place with the President and other parties. It is in this meetings that Sudhir would find the last lifeline on which to hang. It was too late to save the bank but it became clear after this meetings that Sudhir would not step in Luzira as many had earlier thought.
Kirumira who used to be a regular at Sudhir’s kabira country club became very absent. He used to go to Kabira every morning to read newspapers. He shifted to Africanna. Sources within Sudhir’s camp interpreted this as the final cut.
These strains went across to the children. The two best friends, Gideon and Rajiv each became rare in the other’s life. It is said that Rajiv and father went on a blocking spree. They were keeping their circle smaller. Around the same time, they would go on to fall out with the Chimpreports boss, Giles Muhame.
But how did Kirumira make it back to the good books of Sudhir? It is said, for this to be possible, it took the diplomatic brokering of a young man in this city.
“There is a young man who appears to have no power in this city. But it is him who singlehandedly brought the two back to talking terms. He even ensured that Gideon Kirumira became a regular at the Rajiv rally events. This young man, a lover of the skirt would then walk to Sudhir and advise him to begin rebuilding for the future. He told Sudhir how every friendship goes through strains. Both camps had tried to outfist each other. One camp thought the other wanted them implicated for the Kasiwukira murder. The other thought it had collaborated with the mafia to take Crane bank. It was time for the two camps to accept that something went wrong.
The cheerleaders in both camps were partly responsible for the rift. “You know the cheerleaders will spread all sorts of rumours as long as that means Sudhir or Kirumira would keep them even closer,” our source tells us.
With the reunion of the two rich men, could it imply the rebirth of the Kwagalana family? We shall return with a full story of how beef killed Kwagalana and how Uganda’s rich men are baying for each other’s collapse and why Forbes dropped Uganda from its assessments.