Robert Kasozi

The name Rwizi is my childhood nickname.

How did it came!

In our culture when a woman is about to give birth she goes back to her mother to take care of her during and after pregnancy also to teacher this new mother how to handle new born baby challenges.

So in my case although I was the fifth child still my mum had to return to her mother to get best antenatal care. For people who know Mbarara well (biggest city in western Uganda), my grandmother’s home was in Katete across the River opposite Mbarara university.

So on that fateful night of 15th September 1975 my mum got Labour pains, in the house was my grandmother, my untie (sister to my mum) and my uncle (brother to my mum). There was no any vehicle in the whole village not even a motorcycle, the only transport available was a bicycle my uncle had borrowed from a neighbor to take his bananas to the market the next morning.

There were to routes to Mbarara main referral hospital or Mbarara university teaching hospital as it’s called today. One route was the one joining Isingiro road via Ngaro Mwenda bridge was about 1hr:30mns then the shorter one was across the river with the boat about 30mins. So when the labour pains started my uncle carried the expectant mother on the bicycle followed by untie to the river but it was late all boat skippers had gone leaving boats on the river banks.

My uncle was still a young born and grew up on that river he knew how to skip the boat, he loaded the expectant mother her sister and the bicycles to skip across, as they were setting off they heard a bouncing baby boy crying, that was me coming into the world on a boat on the river.

The River happened to be called River Rwizi ( of which both words means the same river is English Rwizi in runyankore). Now the debate was on wether to proceed to the hospital or to return home! But mum with the experience of previous four birth she advised to return home and all went well.

So the next morning news circulated that a woman gave birth on river (Rwizi in my language). Since then people started calling me Rwizi up to now. Because of that background attachment with the name that’s why when we decided to start a company my wife and I we all agreed to call it Rwizi. That’s why on our logo we have a river and a boat.