Businessman Isaac Nabimanya Rusiimirwa has mourned prominent businessman Apollo Nyegamehe known by his business empire name Aponye as a mentor and father figure to “many of us.”
Aponye died after the car he was traveling in, rammed into a stationary Fuso lorry, along the Mbarara-Kabale highway at Kanyankungu, near Itojo Hospital in Ntungamo district, according to a police report.
Below is Isaac’s Tribute to the late businessman
I met the late in 2014. He was among 10 developers who had acquired plots of land along the peri ferry of Old Tax Park down town kampala but had failed to get their Tittles for along time.
In not so many words I would describe the late Apollo Nyegamahe (Aponye ) as a teacher of hustlers, a mentor to the disadvantaged especially those who did not attain formal education, a gentle giant in the grain milling industry, cooking oil Refinery, Soap Transport among many other businesses.
He was a jovial person who spoke pure Rukiga direct. I was lucky he liked me from word go after I had introduced myself to him and where I was from.
He would always smile every time we met. One day he had called me for a payment at his office in Nalukolongo but somehow I came late, he made me wait outside with a big line of people.
When he came, he started laughing and told everyone his Rukiga direct “Ndenda kureba Isaac kusha “meaning I only want to see Isaac, then he held my hand laughing “Erizoba Torabone nabusha, oragunya” . Because I came late and he put me off the list.
I begged him that I had no fuel yet I had fuel, then he again laughed and pulled UGX1 Million from his pocket and gave me to go for a weekend.
He was full of stories, he told me a story about a witch doctor he visited many years ago while he’s young in Kyamakanda, Buyanja, Rukungiri, he had a problem with veins and he could not walk properly.
I asked him if she cured him he again laughed hard, I burst into laughter as well and he was like “Oryomusheki nka Bowanyu Buyanja” he later told me that all she did was massage. He got healed but he still remembered and thanked her as he again walked well. He went back to his produce business. He was able to walk distances looking for beans again.
Why do I say this?
Aponye was a kind of a person full of stories that describe both present and past. Another question I asked was how he came to be called Aponye like his business Empire, his answer was he got a piece of paper and wrote his names then he canceled the last laters and he asked me “tiwareba mbwenu” I saw the letters making Aponye .
Such an interesting intelligent man. He was such a good hearted person, a good listener, he took time to talk but was quick to understand.
Rukiga has lost a lion with a golden heart.
Am confident his empire with his skill of training, his beloved children will push it a head to benefit the masses and his legacy remains.
I dearly shall miss a mentor, a father in him, a great advisor and of it all a visionary, honest businessman.
May the almighty God Rest him In Eternal Peace.
Isaac N. Rusiimirwa
