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The couple ostentatiously chose to show off their home to theworld
in African Woman magazine
I have no idea whether Mike Mukulas’ huge wealth is, or is not,
connected to the mismanagement of the Global Fund. But, what I do know is
that Mukula, and his wife Gladys, are guilty of the most appalling taste
and judgement in how they show off their wealth. Their behaviour helps
illustrate the old saying about having “more money than ....”
“Ostentation” refers to the boastful display of something in a way
intended to draw attention and admiration. An “ostentatious” person is
fond of self-display.
Not only is the Mukula residence in Kampala horribly ostentatious, but
the couple ostentatiously chose to show off their home to the world in
African Woman magazine. If an article ever stank of “look at us everybody,
look how rich we are,” then this was it.
So we learn about the Mukulas’ sauna, steam bath, massage room, gym,
swimming pool, bar, large flat plasma TV screen, furniture and tiles
imported from Italy and Dubai, and much, much, else.
And not only that, we are also told “besides their residence, the
Mukula’s own {other} properties and houses around Kampala, as well as a
house in the United States of America.”
But let us leave to last the most awful statistic of the Mukula Kampala
residence —it has eight showers. In case you thought you had misread, let
me repeat—it has eight showers, imported from Italy.
The Mukulas could use a different shower, everyday of the week, and
still have one left over! And the showers have telephones, in-built
radios, lights, mirrors, and massage/steam facilities.
Compare the Mukulas’ eight showers with the “facilities” in an IDP camp
I visited near Lira which had only three boreholes for 22,000 people. An
Italian engineer, who specialises in sinking boreholes, told me that in
this camp, on average, each person would obtain (for bathing, washing
clothes, cooking and drinking) just one litre of water per day. One
wonders what Ugandans queuing for jerrycans of water in that IDP camp,
would make of life in the Mukula palace?
In many ways we must thank Mike and Gladys. If they had been a little
less ostentatious, there would have been no Africa Woman magazine article
and we would have never learnt what was inside the walls of their home.
But now it is public knowledge, the Mukula Kampala residence, and
especially its showers, will become watchwords for inequality in modern
day Uganda.
In a Third World country like Uganda, inequality gets stretched to its
limits. At the rich end, we see individuals with mind-boggling
ostentatious spending power that would turn heads even in the richer First
World nations. At the poor end, of course, there is widespread,
unremitting, grinding poverty.
Perhaps, before they invest in eight showers, people like the Mukulas
should think a little more about those queuing for water in IDP camps. But
changed behaviour by the rich is unlikely, for as the Eighteenth Century
Scottish economist, Adam Smith, commented in The Wealth of Nations: “With
the great part of rich people, the chief employment of riches consists in
the parade of riches.” | 
