KCCA Honours Ruparelia Foundation for Outstanding Contribution to Kampala City Festival 2025

By Gad Masereka 

The Kampala Capital City Authority has formally recognised the Ruparelia Foundation for the central role it played in delivering the Kampala City Festival 2025, with KCCA Executive Director Hajjat Sharifah Buzeki personally presenting the foundation with an Appreciation Award at a ceremony in the capital.

The Kampala City Festival 2025 drew tens of thousands of people to the streets of the capital, featuring parades, music performances, food exhibitions and community activities that celebrated the city’s culture, diversity and economic vitality. It is one of Uganda’s largest annual urban events and serves as a platform for promoting Kampala as a destination for domestic and international tourism.

KCCA officials said the Ruparelia Foundation’s involvement in the festival’s organisation, branding and execution was instrumental in its success, and that the private sector partnership the Foundation represents is increasingly critical to delivering events at the scale and quality that the festival demands. The recognition places the Foundation among a select group of corporate contributors whose work has materially shaped the city’s public life.

The Ruparelia Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the Ruparelia Group, owned by businessman Dr Sudhir Ruparelia, whose decades-long investment in Kampala spans real estate developments, hotels, schools, and community programmes. The Group’s footprint across the city’s landscape makes it one of the most consequential private actors in Kampala’s ongoing urban development.

City authorities noted that partnerships between KCCA and institutions like the Ruparelia Foundation are expected to deepen as Kampala advances its ambition to become a more organised, competitive and internationally recognised urban centre. For the Foundation, the award affirms a commitment to the city that extends well beyond the boundaries of commercial interest.