Jolly. Allan Gerald Kanyike a celebrated retired businessman turned socialite around many Kampala bars has died on Thursday evening from Nsambya Hospital. Kanyike has been someone who could smell any great vibe around anywhere and he would automatically make his presence felt, living larger than life like a seventeen year old.
For lovers of liveband music in Kampala, the nights wouldn’t be fully blazing if they didn’t spot Mzee Kanyike at the forefront doing his signature dance lockings and breakings that he would perform from when the show starts till the end. He knew how to give himself total happiness and satisfaction that would automatically commensurate to the watchers. He once featured in a music video “Gudi Gudde” by the duo of Radio and Weasel with Khalifah Aganaga.
In 2012, Mzee Kanyike came back to Uganda from the United Kingdom where he had lived for over 30 years with his family. He boasted a triumphant real estate management of some 40 properties for Queen Bridge Management in London.
After spending the most of his life in England, Kanyike`s accent could be likened to historical playwright William Shakespeare and so was his dress code.
At the time of his death, Kanyike who has died aged 58 years has been managing a one IH Grand Logistics Limited, a customs clearing firm in Ntinda which he has been a director to as well.
In all his media interviews, Kanyike was open to let it be known that he married from a historical stock, making him even more connected to the nation. “I am privileged to have a father-in-law called George Kakoma, who composed the National Anthem” he once told a reporter.
He has been a father to six children, grandfather to 11 children and he has been a great grandfather too. “What do I lose to retire? I have got all I need. My wives are British citizens. I set them up. I got them jobs. They gave birth to wonderful children. Let me enjoy my retirement in the Pearl of Africa. I love my country so much. I am one of the top socialites in Uganda. Wherever I go, people get excited. I am a happy person,” he happily revealed earlier in March.
Kanyike started school at HH Aga Khan in Nyari, Mombasa.
From there, he joined St Henry’s College Kitovu, where he is proud to have schooled with the current premier (Katikkiro) of Buganda, Charles Peter Mayiga.
The Saba Saba war led to people like him to go to exile in Nairobi where him and his family lived for six years, from the early 1980s. He attended Griffins College in Nairobi, where he did Association of Business Executive (ABE). When things settled down, he returned back home with his family and settled in Ntinda where his family has lived ever since.
