Who is Justus Kashoma?

Grace Matsiko & Robert Mukombozi

Kampala

Mr Justus Kashoma, the alleged mastermind of the attempted fraud at Stanbic Bank last week, has cultivated an image of flamboyance and generosity. Friends talk about his lavish lifestyle and taste for designer suits, perfumes and the good life spent in casinos and discotheques.

And yet, until his arrest last Thursday at the Garden City Mall in Kampala, little was known about the man, his life or his almost sudden appearance on Kampala’s A-list about two years ago.

Relatives say Kashoma is in his early 30s but the businessman boasts of political connections in the government and Ankole kingdom, where he has earned himself a title of ‘Prince Justus’. His lineage is from the Buhweju chiefdom.

He is the owner of Kashoma Group of companies, a Kamwokya-based firm comprising five companies that claims to have branches in UK, US and Sweden. In these firms, he handles any business that comes his way, a former business associate who declined to be disclosed for fear of hurting their relationship, said.

According to the company website, Kashoma is a real estate dealer and money lender. He hires and sells security equipment. The same group also has a section dealing in Information Communication and Technology (ICT) services, VIP guard services, armed escort of valuables, research, foods and beverages and crime prevention among others.

Kashoma Group says on its website that it also provides vetting services to people who intend to recruit “honest and required” staff. The Company further says its research department keeps a data bank on problems associated with insecurity, proliferation of firearms and its impact.

Few details, however, are available about the extent of his business empire, or his worth. He said earlier this week that he has withdrawn higher sums of money from his accounts than the Shs10 billion that is now under investigation, but Stanbic Bank officials have declined to discuss their customer’s financial history or details.

The company website, where he is described as its Chief Executive Officer, is like a family platform stuffed with photographs of his wedding to Ms Susan Kasingye, a city lawyer. The lavish reception that was hosted at Serena Hotel in Kampala was attended by big shots in government and security institutions.

Sources who attended the wedding say the British Conservative Party, for whom he worked as an activist during his time in UK, was represented by three party members. This, like many stories around Mr Kashoma, could not be independently verified.

Mr Kashoma, who was born to a humble family, grew up in Nakasero, an up market suburb in Kampala under the guardianship of Lt. Col. Akanga Byaruhanga, who took him on after the death of his father, one Mzee Kabundamu, in the early 1990s. Col. Byaruhanga is a former Presidential Guard Brigade (PGB) commander.

Mr Kashoma studied at Shimoni Demonstration School for his Primary education, where he was elected a head boy. He later joined Budo Junior School. Former classmates say that even at the tender age, he had special interest in business.

“While some of us thought about pancakes and sweets, Kashoma put in a bid to supply ties and uniforms, which shocked the school administration,” said the former classmate said, who could not tell whether the budding businessman won the contract.

Mr Kashoma went to Kings’ College Buddo for his O’ and A level before he was sponsored by State House to go to University in the UK to study business.

Mr Kashoma hails from Kazo, Kiruhura District but bought a house in Isingiro where his mother, Ms Perusi Kabundama, currently lives.

While in UK, Mr Kashoma became an activist of the British Conservative Party, sources said. It is because of his activism, that he approached former British Secretary of Defense Mr. Michael Portillo for employment in his office, where he reportedly worked for a long time. Ugandans living in London say he lived a luxurious life, far removed from the penny-wise ways of most students in the British capital.

His links to former health minister Maj. Gen. Jim Muhwezi, who police have expressed interest in interviewing over the case, are unclear; the politician says Mr Kashoma, whom he knows socially, wanted to buy land from him in Nyabushozi.

Now living off the state as a suspected robbery mastermind, Mr Kashoma told Daily Monitor while at the Jinja Road police cells that he was being framed by individuals he has been wrestling for business opportunities.

With his day in court, Mr Kashoma will be able to defend himself against the allegations but for many in the public, it will also be a chance to learn more about what would have been the largest bank heist in Uganda’s recent history, according to police, and a tycoon who apparently came in from the cold to become one of the hottest items on Kampala’s social scene.