A new book that one would quickly describe as a cocktail of various themes has hit the stalls of bookshops in the city and other different parts of Uganda.
The 180-page-double-spaced-text-book, weighing about 400 grams and neatly printed on white manila papers, is titled “Counsel Sam Mayanja’s Guide”.
It touches many subjects ranging from business, politics, land, cultural institutions and other matters of national importance.
It was authored by Samuel Mayanja, a distinguished professional and senior advocate with Kampala Associated Advocates (KAA), one of the leading legal practices in Uganda and East Africa in general.
The law firm also represents Uganda’s leader, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, having appeared for him twice in the previous presidential elections and in a 57million Pounds (approx.. sh.232b) compensation law suit filed by a-London-based Ugandan journalist, Dr Jesse Mashate, who had accused the President of illegally closing down his Weekend Digest in the late 80s or early 90s.
The cover page of the book carries the picture of the gentle smiling Sam Mayanja, who is also a popular and regular columnist of The New Vision, the country’s leading daily.
The book caters for different categories of people and of different ages, who are already in businesses and those starting their own enterprises and; giving guidance about “how companies can avoid legal liabilities.
Sam Mayanja, a specialist in banking and finance and; a lawyer who has won several accolades during his profession, also dedicated five pages in his publication to entrepreneurs; to help business people, especially his readers, to avoid closure of their business enterprises or how to circumvent running their companies into bankruptcy.
Concerning politics, Mayanja peeps into 2021 as he looks back at what he wrote in 2015, a year before the 2016 presidential elections, comparing that period with the current one in which amplified voices of the need for the political opposition to form a coalition to win the elections or take over power.
Presupposing that one would need to know what he wrote then, one needs to look into pages 26 – 27 of his book and see what he made of the then “Democratic Alliance” that was known as TDA.
Mayanja’s book that is a collection of so many of his earlier articles in which he calls a spade a spade and; not a gardening tool reminds his readers of the time he appeared before “The Bamugemereire’s Land Probe Commission” that had been intrigued by his writings that had been published and had the opportunity to give his technical-know-how..
The book also talks of land tenure system in Buganda and how it works. However, the author mentions how such articles, more so those concerning land tenure in Buganda have put members of his family under threat.
However, Mayanja was not oblivious of the young generation that would like to know about the infamous 1966 crisis and who was to blame for its occurrence.
The ever beaming renowned lawyer, Mayanja has also well illustrated the unforgettable 1966 Buganda Crisis, “much to the chagrin of the Mengo establishment” to quote his own words.
In his forward to the book, Simon Peter Kinobe, the current president of the Uganda Law Society, a body that brings together all members of the legal fraternity, stated that he knows him “as a man of integrity, who is candid in his views and; one who is not easily subdued when it comes to airing out his views; which is an outstanding quality that calls for celebration.
In his preface to the book, Mayanja stated: “it is only the under schooled who remain unintrigued even by a bad argument”.
He hopes that his book will encourage the faint-hearted for whom he had always had a teacher’s sympathy.
Besides his profession as a lawyer, Mayanja is a gospel preacher, who has travelled countrywide to preach the word of God.
A strong believer of Christianity, Mayanja’s evangelism started way back as a street preacher at the age 13 in Bwaise, a Kampala city suburban thickly populated area, according to his life history; a life that could have been characterised and influenced, if not inherited from his great grandfather the famous Apollo Kivebulaya.
According to his book, Kivebulaya, who had been forcefully conscripted in the Muslim army in the 1880s, deserted and joined Christianity after witnessing atrocities perpetrated on the infidels.
So, no wonder, Sam Mayanja has taken over from his great patriarch and combined preaching with his law practice.
Who is Sam Mayannja?
Sam Mayanja, currently at KAA hails from Mityana District. He started his early education at Mityana Primary School at Namukozi, Lubiri SS for his ‘O’ level, King’s College Buddo for his ‘A’ and Makerere University where he graduated with Bachelor’s and Master of Laws degrees, becoming the first Ugandan student to graduate with a Master of Laws Degree at Makerere University in 1980.
At Fifty Thousand Uganda Shillings a copy, the Book is found at all branches of Aristoc bookshop and other book stalls or from nabimanya.ronald@gmail.com / +256 713313233.
