On a sunny day in Kakira in the 1940s, on a hill overlooking the pristine shores of Lake Victoria, Muljibhai Prabhudas Madhvani and his sons were having a heated argument. The senior Madhvani loved trees and although many had already been planted on his sprawling estate, he wanted to plant yet another mile of them – running through the marshes to the southern edges of his estate. The younger Madhvanis argued that while previously they had planted trees along estate roads, there was not even a footpath in the marshes to justify this grandiose project. But to all their opposition, Muljibhai had one answer: “Men are not stupid; one day there is going to be a road here.”

And time would bear him out. True to his vision, the section of the Jinja-Iganga highway that runs through Kakira Sugar estate today follows the line of trees that he planted more than 50 years ago. Since then, KSL has gone on to plant millions of trees in the Busoga region, with a vibrant dedicated horticultural department raising and planting seedlings. The company plants an average of 60,000 trees each year on the estate and farmers’ areas.

Not only are our production processes eco-friendly, we have the facilities to actively respond to emergencies in our environment. Kakira has a fully trained and equipped team of fire marshals and three fire trucks, which are freely available to also handle emergencies in surrounding areas off the estate.