Christopher Sembuya, one of the first industrialists and entrepreneurs, and founders of the Sembule Group is dead. Sembuya passed away on Tuesday at around midday at a hospital in Kampala.

His son, Stephen Sembuya, confirmed his father’s death. He said Sembuya collapsed from his bedroom and was rushed to the hospital where unfortunately died, he was undergoing treatment at Kampala Hospital.

“He wasn’t admitted. He has been 87 years and a bit frail and receiving treatment and checkups,” his son said.

He noted that what was stressing the old man was his factory. “Up until this morning, he was asking me when we would recover the Sembule steel mills. He was asking how he could again get to meet President Yoweri Museveni and ask for his intervention,” the son said.

Sembuya abandoned his white-collar job as a District Commissioner and together with his brother the late W. H. Buwule started Sembule Steel Mills Limited in 1971. The name Sembule comes from the combination of their last names Sembuya and Buwule.

They became the first indigenous Ugandans to set the stage for entrepreneurs in Uganda.

On their website, the company says Sembule Steel Mills Limited started with a few wire-nail manufacturing machines from WAFIOS. And in a few years, it had grown into one of the largest wire-nail manufacturing companies in Uganda.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the company continued to grow and increase its product lines from wire nails to welding electrodes, and to diversify into the real estate business.

In the 1990s, Sembule diversified into banking, insurance, and electronics. Sembule Steel Mills Ltd on the other hand was able to increase its product lines even further by introducing roofing and fencing products like iron bars, iron sheets

Throughout this period the Sembule Group managed to keep its lead as the group that provides the highest quality products in the region as well as offering the best customer service in the industry.

They also ventured into assembling the first television sets and radios in Uganda and was the first owner of a private television station in Uganda CTV that later became WBS TV station.

Sembuya also established the first indigenous bank, Sembule Commercial bank that today is called Bank of Africa, and an insurance company Pan World Insurance Company which changed its names to Lion Assurance Ltd.

His son says on many occasions his father reminded him that he helped finance the National Resistance Movement liberation war when they were in the bush between 1981-1986, through the late DR. Samson Kisekka.

In the early 90’s whenever President Museveni would receive visiting heads of state, they would be taken to visit the Sembule companies to showcase how Uganda was developing.

His businesses later crumbled and in 2014, Sembule steel factory was sold by a local bank on the orders of court after the bank accrued sh7b in loans.

His son says that even at the age of 87, Sembuya still had dreams of turning the country into an industrialist nation. He appealed to President Yoweri Museveni to assist the family recover their properties that were sold by the banks.