Uganda's stub at Big Brother Star Game

By Nigel Nassar and Joseph Ssemutooke

You definitely know about Skizzy, that showbiz and lifestyle magazine show on Vision Group’s Urban TV, which airs weekdays between 10:00am and 1:00pm.

Well, Skizzy has this time around produced one of Uganda’s representatives in Season Seven of the famed M-Net Reality show Big Brother Africa: Star Game, which launched last night in South Africa.

Kyle Duncan Kushaba, 25, who hosts Skizzy alongside Sheila Mercedes Ssempebwa, is one of Uganda’s bets at bringing home the staked jackpot of sh750m, the other bet being Jannette Georgina Lutaaya, his friend and partner in the game.

The assortment of artillery Kyle comes with should make Uganda’s chances of winning a maiden Big Brother championship real.

The fact that he is a TV presenter means he is no stranger to the limelight. And he has shown on Skizzy that he is as free and lively on camera as anyone born for the screen, with good English to do him justice in communication.

Away from that, he is a fun-crazed character with a prodigious fondness for the entertainment world, so he won’t be boring to watch. He is also a recording artiste with the still-obscure-but-promising duo

Uptown, where his pal Remy Ratzy is partner — they are the guys behind hits like Facebook Lover and Nakuwaza. Expect to see the extroverted Kyle sing, dance and engage the house on all things showbiz and entertainment.

If one has enough doses of ‘swagg’, expect Kyle to be friends with them. Then there are the women.

“Man, I am a flirt, so expect me to do my thing. Expect a bit of kissing but no sex – my father is a man of God,” he says in an interview ahead of his flight to Johannesburg for the contest.

Now, the aggregate of all those makes Kyle a confident lad. If confidence is what wins this season, then Kyle will bring the dime. But then again it might be his undoing if contestants view that as a threat, especially since he can sometimes be argumentative, stubborn, rebellious, and disregard those he thinks don’t have ‘swagg’. So you have to keep voting to keep him in.

Born to Reverend Benon Gumisiriza Karuhinda, a globe-trotting clergyman and Juliet Tushemereirwe, a teacher, Kyle is third of six — two brothers and three sisters.

He studied at Kitante Primary and Kitunga Boarding Primary in Rwanda, his mom’s motherland. He joined Ntare School, from where he was expelled over booze, selling cigarettes kissing a girl through the school fence. He sat O’levels at Muntuyera High School, Ntungamo, before joining Kitante Hill School, where he dismissed from after a term over an altercation his Literature teacher, eventually finishing A’level at Mengo S.S. There, he was an entertainment Furniture prefect-dubbed ‘Girls’ Prefect’ for obvious reasons. Kyle has a Mass Communication degree from Makerere University.

He worked briefly with Record TV as a producer before joining Vision Group, where he started as a Features Writer before moving to Urban October last year.

And what’s his winning strategy in the house? have none, I will just free-style.”