At 60 years old, Margaret Mary Meri walks into the gardens of the Kampala Serena Hotel with confidence. She wears a white gown, white shoes, and white earrings while carrying a red handbag. Her faded dress and worn shoes, however, reveal the poverty she now faces.
Meri comes from Matanyi Village in Napak District but now lives in Kampala. She sleeps at Mutundwe Christian Fellowship church during the week and spends Sundays on verandahs because the church closes that day. “At times when there is nothing to eat, I beg. I am not ashamed of begging or sleeping on verandahs,” she says. She explains that living at the church gives her strength, especially when other homeless women comfort her by calling her “Jjajja.”
Her past tells a different story. She once worked with the Lutheran World Federation and the Office of the RDC in Kyankwanzi. Together with her former husband, Tony Kisadha, she lived in Zambia before returning to Uganda. Later, she invested in a bus that ran the Kampala–Soroti route. When divorce came in 2011, the High Court awarded her a bungalow in Kajjansi worth Shs600 million. Her life, however, soon collapsed.
Her husband had already mortgaged the house for a loan. Struggling with money, she turned to a banker who convinced her to borrow Shs40 million. Interest rates shot up, the church renting her house defaulted on payments, and her debt spiraled.
In desperation, she met brokers who linked her to Ambrose Murunga, a Kenyan national close to former IGP Kale Kayihura. Meri says Murunga forced her to accept Shs200 million for the house, far below its value. After they cleared her debts with moneylenders, he gave her only Shs9 million and promised to pay the balance later. When she demanded it, he allegedly detained her at Jinja Road Police Station until she signed documents handing over the property and rental income.
She used the little money to start a food business in Kabalagala, buying onions and potatoes, but it collapsed within months. Murunga never paid the full amount, leaving her destitute. Her children moved in with their father while she rotated between Pentecostal churches for shelter.
In 2019, she presented her case to the Land Inquiry Commission. The Commission declared the transaction irregular and told Murunga to renegotiate. He later gave her Shs35 million in two installments but never cleared the balance of Shs26 million. Police demanded money for transport when she asked them to pursue him.
Meri says she spent the small payments on her children’s education because their father refused to cover school fees. Relatives also pushed her off family land in Napak, arguing that a woman should not own property. “They even took the land I bought myself. I built three houses there, but I cannot access them,” she says.
Today, Margaret Mary Meri survives by begging and sleeping in churches. “Sometimes we homeless people go out to look for work, but only young women get hired. They say I am too old. Yet my stomach is not old—I still need to eat,” she says. Despite her struggles, she insists Murunga must obey the Commission’s directive and return what she lost.
