Solomon Kaweesa

Solomon Kaweesa is a Ugandan media personality, journalist, radio presenter, teacher, musician, songwriter, producer and farmer. He’s an excellent news reporter and to him, journalism is a talent and a gift from the almighty.
Early Life and Education Solomon Kaweesa was born in Western Uganda but his ancestral ground is in Gomba District. Kaweesa was born in Western Uganda because his mother hails from there. He’s a Muganda by tribe and belongs to the Fumbe clan.
Kaweesa’s father is a retired engineer; he met his mother the time he was transferred to work in Western Uganda, later two years after his birth they moved to Kampala. He grew up and studied in Kampala.
Kaweesa attended Fred Williams School in Kyegera for his early school life. However, his first days at the school, the teachers noticed that he was more clever than other children so they advised his parents to change his school.
He moved to Sir Apollo School, the current Kyegera Parents School. Kaweesa skipped nursery and went straight to P.1 because he was extra clever, he started P.1 in 3rd term and studied in the same school until P.7.
After his primary school, Kaweesa joined brothers of Christian Instruction Rubaga, current Uganda Martyrs High School Rubaga best known as Rubaga boys because it began as a single school for both his O and A levels.
In S.5, Kaweesa began with sciences but later on, he dropped sciences painfully and joined Arts because his science teachers were restricting him from singing which he liked most. They wanted him to focus on studies yet for him, he wanted to do both, so he opted for Arts subjects (HEG/L) in which he performed excellently in UACE exams.
Kaweesa is principled and open-minded man, at school he used to tell the teachers what’s right and what wrong straight away. One day while in S.1, he approached the School headmaster and told him that he can’t eat porridge without sugar.
Kaweesa reasoned that his primary school used to provide porridge with sugar and now he can’t manage the poor condition he was subjected to, and indeed things changed for the better, the school listened to his view and began providing porridge with sugar to students.
Following the event, Kaweesa was appointed student’s religious leader at school and other posts without him contesting. After his secondary school, Kaweesa joined Makerere University to study a bachelor’s degree in education.
Work and Experience Solomon Kaweesa began working as a radio presenter at Radio Sapientia, a Catholic founded station based in Nsambya while still in High school.
He used to go and read the news during weekends, and after his S.6 he continued working at the station. Kaweesa was spotted by a particular gentleman who had visited the school.
At school, there was a time when students could read the news during school assemblies and Kaweesa was one of them. He used to read Luganda news, so that day someone was standing at the school gate because at their school no one was allowed in the school premises during assemblies, they could wait until it’s done.
One gentleman who worked at Radio Sapientia was at the gate listening to his reading and he gained interest in him. He walked to the school administration and asked for him to go and read the news at the station and the school accepted.
So Kaweesa went and started doing some small work at the station but after completing S.6 in 2007, he directly began working, reading news.
However, shortly after joining the University Kaweesa resigned and instead joined Edoboozi a Buganda newspaper where he was one of the pioneers which no longer exist. He left Radio Sapientia because the payment was small and balancing school and work was hard.
Kaweesa instead concentrated on the Edoboozi because it was easy for him; he could send his work via Email without going to the station which was impossible with anchoring news at Radio Sapientia.
Edoboozi was started after the closure of CBS Radio on 10 September 2009 accusing them of inciting violence which led to the Buganda riots when the Kabaka of Buganda was blocked from accessing his county, Bugerere, Kayunga District in 2009.
Kaweesa worked with the paper from 2009 to 2012. He resigned after disagreeing with the paper on some internal matters and shortly the paper closed. At Edoboozi, Kaweesa worked as the entertainment editor. This was the time he was singing and associating with musicians so he began writing entertainment stories and eventually he turned into the editor of the segment. He narrates that it was so challenging that’s balancing school and work. Kaweesa then joined teaching after completing his studies as a secondary school teacher. Few years working as a teacher, Kaweesa resigned which affected the school and his students, it was a hard decision for him but he had to do it because his target as a teacher had ended. He moved to try out something new, he joined journalism. He started as an internee at NTV newsroom in February 2013.
Before the 3 months internship period elapsed, Kaweesa was among the internees to be recruited by Nation Media Group. He worked very hard because they had informed him that he has to learn everything quickly. After all, no one has time to teach him everything.
They were taken to Nairobi at Nation Media Group headquarters based in Nairobi Kenya for one-year training in the company’s media lab. By then, Kaweesa got worried because he did not want to study again but he accepted and went to Nairobi.
He says the good thing it was a paid training and then in 2014 he returned and began working as a Luganda news reporter at NTV Uganda until today.
Kaweesa is a good journalist, he did not study journalism apart from the certificate he received in Nairobi. He can do anything regarding media including anchoring news but to him, he feels better being in the field gathering news, he dislikes sitting in the newsroom and wait for stories.
This was witnessed the one time he anchored the news at NTV and it was perfect.
As a child, Kaweesa dreamt of serving in the seminary but his dream was cut short after his parents disagreed with his decision. According to the seminary rules, no one can be allowed in when one of the parents disagrees with the decision.
Music Solomon Kaweesa was born a musician, he started singing when he was still a child and composed a song in his P.2 class which they sang on Speech Day. He used to sing in the school choir and at the church.
After S.6 Kaweesa continued working on radio and singing was at the peak. He began singing with musician GeoSteady, Ray Signature, Larry Charry and others whom they used to sing with while at school.
This group of musicians was spotted by Singer Sylver Kyagulanyi who used to move in schools conducting auditions to discover young talents. Kyagulanyi picked interest in some of Kaweesa’s friends and started nurturing their talent. Kaweesa was not among the new talents Kyagulanyi picked however, he was allowed to go along with his friends for the training. As time went on Kyagulanyi picked interest in Kaweesa and started nurturing him as well.
Nevertheless, after joining university Kaweesa dropped music because it was hard for him to handle three activities at a go; that’s school, work and music. He promised himself that he will continue music after school is done, after all, he had already invested a lot in music and the foundation was firm.
By then, his friends had already begun conducting musical tours and earning something in music. And for Kaweesa he decided to focus on his career which will later help him push his music forward.
Kaweesa chose the school because he had so much passion for studies and also he wanted to fulfil his mother’s dream of him attaining a degree.