Tributes have continued to be paid to the proprietor of MK Publishers Ltd, Samuel Majwega Musoke, following his death on Saturday, June 25.

Musoke, 63, died just days after being operated on for intestinal obstruction in the US state of Louisiana.

Dr James Tumusiime, the managing director of Fountain Publishers, told New Vision on Monday (June 27) that they were saddened by the tragic news of his death.

“It’s a tragic for our industry and I think for his family and Uganda at large. He was among the first soldiers I recruited in our war against foreign domination of the publishing industry in Uganda,” Mzee Tumusiime, who also chairs Uganda Broadcasting Corporation, said.

He also recalled that he and the late Musoke were the first two local publishers who were accepted to supply books to the ministry of education.

“And we have moved together since 1993 when the policy was adopted to allow local publishers to compete with their foreign counterparts. We have weathered similar storms; faced the challenges of the publishing industry together,” Tumusiime noted.

In 2000, it became an official government policy for all government-aided schools to use books from bookshops in their respective districts.

He also noted that they were able to gain a foothold in the outside markets. “He has left a big legacy and a vacuum at the top,” he remarked.

The publishing firms founded under the MK brand name are: MK Publishers Ltd, the mother company in Uganda; MK Publishers (R) Ltd in Rwanda; MK Publishers Ltd in Zambia; MK Publishers Kenya Ltd, MK SEG, Burundi, MK Publishers Tanzania Ltd and MK Publishers, Ethiopia.

MK Publishers sales and marketing manager, Robert Mulumba, said as a firm, they will miss their boss so much.

“By the time he started this company we didn’t have strong local publishing firms around. By that time Ugandans were using books published by multinationals. So his local publishing firm helped this nation because now the learners are using books published by local publishers and written by local authors who understand the classroom situation in Uganda,” he said.

Mulumba also said the late publisher was instrumental in promoting the use of locally published books and rallying key players in the publishing industry together.

What family says

Musoke’s brother, Ronald Kironde, did not divulge details of the late’s personal life, only saying he was a strong pillar of the family. “He is an irreplaceable person,” he said.

Asked when they would bring back his brother's remains, Kironde said he wasn’t sure about it because it’s the team in the US working on the process.

It usually takes 14 days to get clearance from the US authorities to repatriate the body of someone who has died there.

Kironde, however, said Musoke will be laid to rest at Senge village in Wakiso district. 

Musoke was the son of the late Wilson Mukaddemungu Lutakome who lived in Kungu in Matugga, near Kampala.