Mowzey Radio''s big heart

By Emmanuel Ssejjengo & Julius Senyimba

Mowzey Radio does everything with passion and commitment. Ever wondered why? The answer has been found. It is his family.

In the wake of more recent award nominations, bar brawls and wrecking his home, many have been hard-pressed to find out why Mowzey Radio does the things he does.

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Radio's grandmother at ther home. All photos/ARichard Sanya

Mowzey Radio is not a mere breadwinner. He is the everything-winner in his family. And that explains why he has committed his life to giving to this family and no one (at least not a manager) can get in his way.

He is fighting to retain the Neverland home. But apart from that, there is a lot more he has done for a family that stretches across four generations.

It involves grandmothers, mothers, sisters and brothers and children. And that is from a Radio who had to work in a barbershop in Ndeeba to top up on his school fees.

“He cannot fail any of them, and he works so hard to ensure that they are all happy,” we were informed.

Back to his roots

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On the road to Kagga

Family is paramount,” Radio insinuated in an interview with The Kampala Sun. He added that the press can publish all the bad or wrong things about him.

“But as long as you do not write bad things about my family, I will keep laughing and smiling at you,” he explained.

In his village, it is believed that Radio is worth sh1b. He is building houses for relatives and starting businesses that would make NAADS jealous.

He owns several bars in Kampala and Jinja, a fabulous home in Makindye, a farm near Kigali, a commercial building and is starting a record company there.

That and so much more sums up their billionaire. There are many pretty good things about the family he is so protective about.

We went back to Mowzey’s roots, to the person he credits for starting the persona of Mowzey Radio Sekibogo.

It is his maternal grandmother who lives in Kagga, about eight kilometres o Entebbe Road from Kitende. For her, a car parking near her home means that Radio has come to visit or sent her some goodies.

And she welcomed us with the idea that we had been sent by her grandson. To her disappointment, we informed her that we were only journalists.

But, she is very welcoming and that did not dampen the mood. She immediately went into overdrive in praising Radio.

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The storeyed house Radio is building his mother

“I’ve heard that my boy Mooyuzeei (for that is how she refers to him) was hurt in a bar bawl. Is he okay?” she queried. We convinced her that Radio was well, alive, kicking and full of life.

However, she was worried and wondered why he has not visited her for three weeks. But what kind of grandma thinks that three weeks is a long time? Only Radio’s, because he visits her weekly.

And for all the big decisions he takes, he seeks counsel from her. And she knows that she cannot dissuade him when he sets his goals.

“After completing studies (university), he told me that he is going to become a musician and not follow his learned profession,” she remembers.

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Radio's mother in her kiosk

Then, she assumed there was nothing to gain from music and she tried to change his mind. He was adamant and she instead blessed him. She insists that Radio is so humble he cannot even hurt the insects her chickens eat.

She is an aging woman (about 70 years if you are judging by years). And Radio is catering for her late years. He has ensured that she can harvest and store enough water in plastic tanks so she does not strain with daily visits to the well. “Mooyuzeei is also going to build for me another house,” she says.

For now, Mooyuzeei bought about 10 piglets for his grandmother to start a business that will keep her earning a penny now and then.

Radio and his mother

If you now look suspiciously at Radio’s mother, she will suspect that you have been sent by Jeff Kiwanuka to hurt her.

She lives in such fear, which may largely be unfounded. “Who are those people with a camera?

They have been sent here by Jeff. Now that my son is so strong-willed to be hurt by them directly, he (Jeff) has now turned to me so that Mowzey can break down,” she lamented when she saw The Kampala Sun team.

She now closes her grocery shop in Makindye at about 6:00pm instead of 9:00pm. That is how attached to the son she is. And that feeling is reciprocated.

At the time of formation of Goodlyfe, it was agreed among the members that their mothers would receive a monthly stipend from the company account.

Then Allan Kiwanuka, Jeff’s brother joined - first as a worker and later as a partner. “ They stop paying Radio’s mother her monthly stipend,” says a Goodlyfe insider. It was then that Radio questioned the other members’ intentions.

“You cannot claim to like me when you do not like my own mother,” argued Radio. Since then, there have been only crocodile smiles between the members.

Fearing for his mother, he started constructing for her a seven-room house in Kitende 9km off the main road.

According to Radio’s uncle whom we met at the yet complete house, the two rooms will be reserved for Radio whenever he visits his mother.

Brother and three sisters

You probably saw Radio’s brother on TV or in the papers. He was the one who tried to protect Radio from being beaten up by Police (But police, what the heck!).

On the day, he was dressed in tiger prints. His name is Franco Sekibogo. “He started a business for him at Avemar Centre in town. He now deals in CDs, and computer equipment,” we are informed.

But more than that, Franco currently manages Radio’s Soldiers’ Pub in Wandegeya.

He has also seen his three sisters through school. One of them, Nuru, works with Kampala Sheraton Hotel. She is the one responsible for picking up their mum at her shop and driving her home. The other sister, Sylvia, also completed school and is working.

The last born, Nagujja, is an S.6 student at Nsambya’s Girls SSS. Radio pays her school dues. “He is her father and mother. He always cautions her on behaviour and character,” says a relative. “ They lived in a two-room house in Makindye.

They were four girls, two boys and a mother in that small space. The house structure was struggling to survive over a trench, which was ooften filthy,” remembers someone who grew up in that neighbourhood.

Radio has come from that far, and he cannot stand to see someone from his family live that kind of life again.

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