Hussein Shire (Xuseen Shire): founder of Gateway buses in Uganda

Who was he?

Hussein Shire (Somali: Xuseen Shire; Ugandan papers also write Shiire) was a businessman of Somali origin who built one of Uganda's largest bus companies, Gateway (Wikipedia, Hussein Shire). Uganda's Sunday Monitor called him in 2004 "one of the quiet tycoons" who "keeps out of sight and hates showing off his wealth" (Sunday Monitor, "The rise, fall and rise of Uganda's rich", 8 February 2004, reposted on the Ugandanet list).

From a shop and a taxi to buses

He started in the 1950s in Tororo, in eastern Uganda near the Kenyan border. His son Abdullahi Hussein Shire told New Vision that his father was among a few businessmen who opened businesses in Tororo town in that decade (New Vision, 2014). New Vision called him "one of the first Africans to set up a retail business in Tororo town in the early 1950's" (same source).

He carried passengers in a blue Peugeot 504 along the Tororo to Malaba highway and ran a grocery shop in Tororo, selling sodas and ice to travellers. With the profits he bought a minibus and a trailer (Sunday Monitor, 2004). He entered the bus business with Tata buses in 1983. The Gateway Tata bus was the first bus most travellers used between eastern Uganda and Kampala (Daily Monitor, 2 July 2014).

Gateway

By 2004 Gateway had more than 100 buses running across Uganda and was the only Ugandan company running a service to Kenya (Sunday Monitor, 2004). It later also ran to South Sudan (Wikipedia, Hussein Shire). Its buses served eastern and northern Uganda, including the roads into Karamoja when they were in poor condition and insecure, and the routes from Soroti to Moroto and Kotido. He also set up the Gateway Bus Terminal in Kisenyi, Kampala, next to Nakivubo stadium (Daily Monitor, 2014). Tororo's mayor, Geoffrey Emokol Opuwa, called him "the first man to operate a bus company in Tororo" (same source).

Other businesses

He also owned Shire Petroleum fuel stations, commercial buildings, Hussein Stores on Tagore Road in Tororo, Papa Bakery in Tororo, and about 2,000 acres of sugarcane that supplied Kakira Sugar Works and Mayuge Sugar Works (New Vision, 2014; Daily Monitor, 2014).

Death

He died on Saturday 28 June 2014 in a Johannesburg hospital after knee surgery, aged 85. He had also been ill with kidney problems and had been in hospital in South Africa for nearly two months. He was buried, as he had asked, at the Muslim cemetery at Mile One on Jinja Road in Tororo. He left his widow, Mariam Hussein, and nine children (New Vision, 2014; Daily Monitor, 2014). See Somalis in Uganda, Somali business in Uganda and Somali business pioneers.

Sources disagree

• Where and when he was born. Wikipedia says he was born in 1928 or 1929 in Galkayo, Somalia. The Daily Monitor in 2014 says he was born in Kumi town, in Uganda's Teso sub-region, in 1931. The Sunday Monitor in 2004 says he was born in Tororo (Wikipedia; Daily Monitor; Sunday Monitor).
• When Gateway began. The Daily Monitor gives 1983; New Vision says the early 1980s; Wikipedia says the 1980s (same sources; New Vision).
• His children. New Vision and the Daily Monitor say five daughters and four sons. Wikipedia says five sons and four daughters (same sources).