Commander Menton as he is normally referred to by his subordinates who works for Seven Hills Group SACCO narrated how he was converted from being a Gangster to the director of a business company which won the tender of UGX 14 billion annually.
He narrated his story to George Bukenya a reporter of this Website.
Menton Salim his real name once a notorious gangster is now one of the directors of Seven Hills Group Ltd narrated how his was converted from being a gangster to settle for the normal life and start working for a monthly salary.
Menton who now heads a group of over 8,000 volunteers, says that he was actually a leader of the gangsters’ groups which were operating in Kampala City terrorizing people stealing all sorts of properties as well as robbing banks and he doesn’t recall the number of times he was imprisoned.
He says because of being an expert in operations and in unlocking safes the fellow gangsters accepted him as their leaders and some robbers outside his gangster group would hire him after breaking into a bank premise or any building where they had spies where they keep money to unlock the safe.
“ I was a notorious thief and whenever I could pass via areas like Parliamentary Avenue, KCCA City hall they would ring immediately to commanders of police and military police who used to codon on the area where I was suspected to be and they would arrest me even without even committing crime at that moment.’’ Menton recounts.
He adds “ I got fed up of such situations yet I had not even gained much from being a gangster group so I decided to think of living a normal life and do business and this helped me to denounce my criminal job.’’
He also says that they would get a lot of money, like Ushs 50m but he would speed up a sizable period on the run because of fear of being arrested and he would also use part of this money to bribe security operatives. When it gets finished he would plan again to steal more and life would continue like that.
Menton narrates that he was the overall commander well as each of the five Divisions of Kampala had a gangster leader were, Kampala Central was headed by Bashir Bugembe, Jamil Kabugo headed Rubaga, Kapaafu (Makindye) and Samuel Kisame (Nakawa).
He says because of his role in the organized crime he was able to meet President Museveni several times and he would be taken to State House by some politicians but they would just use them and in the end they would not benefit materially from meeting with president.
Having worked for 3 years as volunteers, when an opportunity for the tender came up seven Hills also applied and competed with other several bidders including other companies that had worked for 15 years but they managed to beat such companies on merit.
The former gangster also says that when he lead his team to g to KCCA to present their biding document everybody was distancing from the because of their long time notorious acts people feared dealing with their group but by God’s grace they managed to muanurva and they presented their bide successfully.
Menton says they had done a very good home on how best they can do the job at a cheaper cost and when they presented their papers were they ably articulated very well because they knew how best they could do the job because most of them were even sleeping in these channels, it attracted KCCA to award the tender to them and the members are now happy earning a living.
After securing the tender, the members of the former volunteer group applied for jobs and are now employed formerly to clean the city and they are saving even with their SACCO.
Menton says that after securing the tender he called all the gangster leaders from the five Division of Kampala and in their meeting they resolved to chase away all gangsters from Kampala and ensure that there’s security that this is why there are no more groups and the so called notorious ‘ggaali’ were about 200 youth would move in a gang late in the evening and at night terrorizing and grabbing very thing they would come across on their way as well as injuring people.