Makerere University teaching staff are prone to sit-down strikes, calling for salary increments. In fact last year, President Museveni advised them to go and rear goats if they were not comfortable with what the university was paying them. So, it is shocking, when a university don pays Shs28m for booze. These are things that the so-called rich gang members usually do. However, Professor Anthony Kerali, the head of the Construction Economics and Management department at Makerere forked out a hefty Shs28m for 10 bottles of the exclusive Johnnie Walker King George V (KGV) during a golf function in Kabale. Only 40 bottles of the coveted liquor were made available on the Ugandan market, each retailing at Shs2.8m and 11 were bought at the launch event that was conducted by Diageo global CEO Ivan Menezes two weeks ago. The remaining 29 bottles were taken to Kabale, where Johnnie Walker had sponsored an Easter Golf Tournament.
The golfers were given an opportunity to purchase the exclusive bottles during the prize-giving ceremony and they all sold out. But the man who stood out is Prof Kerali, the treasurer of the Uganda Golf Union, who purchased 10 bottles.
“I am speaking as Prof Kerali, not the UGC treasurer, so make no mistake about where the money is coming from,” he said.
To shock the guests who attend the event at White Horse Inn further, he did not go home with any of the bottles as he donated them to Kabale Golf Club to help fund the refurbishment of the golf course.
We did some more digging and found out that Kerali is not only a Makerere don, but he is also the Director General of Kerussi International, a consulting engineering and project management firm that runs projects in several countries.