The lawyer who pleads for animals

Dec 10, 2018

When Bataamye was in primary school, his father often sent him to a one Mulungwa, a resident of Butansi who was married to his (Bataamye's) auntie, to borrow cash to pay school fees. He was a farmer.

BEST FARMERS

Julius Bataamye, 49, is an accomplished commercial farmer. But as executive secretary at Uganda Petroleum College, Kigumba, few can imagine him on the farm pushing wheelbarrow-loads of animal waste, collecting chicken droppings and tending gardens.

The professional lawyer owns a multi-million JB Farm in Naminage, Kamuli district.

Sitting on 102 acres, JB Farm has a piggery with 1,250 pigs, 62 heifers and 39 calves, 409 goats, 79 sheep, 150 turkeys, 10,000 layers, 40 exotic rabbits and a modern incubator that hatches 1,500 chicks every month.

The farm also has a six-acre banana plantation, 1,000 mango trees, 2,000 coffee trees, nine acres of rice and a fish pond with 5,000 mmale (catfish) and tilapia.

Early life
When Bataamye was in primary school, his father often sent him to a one Mulungwa, a resident of Butansi who was married to his (Bataamye's) auntie, to borrow cash to pay school fees. Mulungwa reared indigenous cattle, goats, chicken, turkeys and ducks, which he sold during the Christmas and Easter seasons, earning handsome returns.

Back at home, Mzee Gobolo, Bataamye's father, reared pigs, whose proceeds contributed about 65 % of the school fees. His father worked as farm manager at Busoga High School-Kamuli, so he always watched him treating animals and in due course mastered the dynamics.

However, in 1984, Mzee Gobolo ran broke and planned to sell off part of the land to clear school fees for his children. Bataamye, who was to be a beneficiary, opposed the move.

Despite being a young boy and only a Primary Seven pupil at Naminage Primary School in 1984, Bataamye had a vision that the family would use that land profitably in future. Little wonder that decades later, he is utilising the land maximally and has bought more pieces to accommodate the thriving farming enterprises.

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