Rugaaga, Isingiro — Hon. Balaam has officially commissioned the market built by businessman Gordon Wavamunno at Rugaaga — a market the tycoon built as a way of giving back to the people and traders of the land where he was born.
For the traders of Rugaaga, it was not just the opening of another market. It was the return of a son who left with nothing, made it in the big world, and came back to lift his own people.
Gordon Babala Kasibante Wavamunno was born on 16 December 1943 in Rugaaga, in present-day Isingiro District.
He grew up in Rugaaga Trading Centre, where his father ran a retail shop. From a young age, he was introduced to petty trade — sugar, soap, clothes and money.
He himself has said: “I have no doubt that my enduring passion for business has its roots in the Rugaaga trading centre of my youth.”
From the age of about 14, during school holidays, he would accompany his father on cattle and coffee trading trips around Ankole. There used to be an open cattle market every end of the month. After selling cattle, they would buy matches, knives, hurricane lamps and textiles to take back to Rugaaga to sell to customers in Bukanga.
That is where it all started — with a bicycle carrying matooke between Kaberebere on the Mbarara-Kikagate road to make a living.
From that bicycle, he built a business empire: Spear Motors Limited in 1973, the sole Mercedes-Benz dealership in Uganda, GM Tumpeco which makes Ugandan vehicle number plates, Wavah Water Limited, Wavah Books Limited, and many others.
But he never forgot Rugaaga.
Wavamunno has long been known not just as a businessman, but as a philanthropist.
He has donated beds to Katalemwa, a home for disabled children, donated materials to schools, worked with St. John’s Ambulance in Uganda, and regularly contributed to the building of schools, hospitals and places of worship in Uganda.
He holds the title of Canon in the Church of Uganda because of the role he played in building religious institutions like St James Ruharo Church of Uganda in Mbarara.
He was knighted in the Order of Saint John for his philanthropic work with St John Association of Uganda, where he has been a member since 1983, offering bursaries to orphans and donating ambulances.
He also initiated a secondary school in Lwanda, Rakai — where his family settled — because he wanted to create an institution that would empower local children through education, reduce illiteracy and provide opportunities for generations.
The market in Rugaaga is the latest chapter in that same story of giving back.
Hon. Balaam, while commissioning the market, said the market is more than bricks and stalls. It is dignity for traders, income for families, and a future for the youth.
For years, traders in Rugaaga have been trading in the open — under the sun, under the rain, with no proper shelter, no proper storage, and no proper sanitation. Their matooke, maize, beans, vegetables, clothes and other goods would get spoiled. Their customers would run away when it rained.
Now, with the market built by Wavamunno, traders have a clean, organized and permanent place to trade.
Mothers who wake up at 4am to go to the garden can now bring their produce to a safe market. Young people who have been struggling to find jobs can now start small businesses in the market. Farmers from across Bukanga County can now bring their produce to one central place and find buyers.
Hon. Balaam told the traders to use the market well, keep it clean, protect it from vandalism, and ensure that it benefits everyone — not just a few.
He said this is what true leadership and true wealth mean: not building for yourself alone, but building for the community that raised you.
As Hon. Balaam cut the cake to officially open the market, the crowd broke into ululations.
The message was clear: If everyone who has made it remembered where they came from like Wavamunno has remembered Rugaaga, Uganda would be a different country.
From a boy who carried matooke on a bicycle in Rugaaga, to a man who has built a market for his people to trade in — Gordon Wavamunno has shown that success is sweetest when it is shared.
And for the people of Rugaaga, the market will stand for generations as proof that their son did not forget them.
