Speke Resort Munyonyo Comes Alive as Drivers and Friends Honour Rajiv Ruparelia

By Gad Masereka

Speke Resort Munyonyo was transformed into a gathering place of memory and celebration on Sunday as hundreds of drivers, motorsport enthusiasts, family members and friends converged on the lakeside venue to honour the life of Rajiv Ruparelia on the first anniversary of his death.

Cars, motorcycles and SUVs filled the resort grounds in a spectacle that was both visually striking and deeply emotional. For the motorsport community, gathering at Munyonyo in convoy was not simply an event on a calendar. It was a statement. Rajiv had spent considerable time at this resort, associated it with family, with business, with the particular kind of pleasure he took in bringing people together in beautiful spaces. Arriving here in his memory felt like completing a journey he had started.

The scenes at the resort captured the complexity of an anniversary that was simultaneously sad and joyful. Participants wore memorial T-shirts bearing Rajiv’s image, played music he loved, shared stories from their time with him, and displayed vehicles that reflected the passion for machines and speed that had been central to his identity. Some came with children who had never met him but whose parents wanted them to know who he was.

Sudhir Ruparelia arrived at Munyonyo to a reception that spoke to the affection in which his family is held in Uganda. He moved through the crowd with Jyotsna and their daughter Sheena, greeting participants personally, thanking the organisers, and pausing frequently to speak with individuals who approached him with condolences and tributes.

He told those gathered that the turnout at Munyonyo was proof that Rajiv had lived well, that a person could only draw this kind of love if they had given it freely in their lifetime. He asked the crowd to carry something of Rajiv forward, not just on anniversaries, but in the daily choices to be generous, to be present, and to refuse to let the people around them feel invisible.

As the afternoon gave way to evening and the convoy of vehicles began to disperse from the Munyonyo grounds, the scene captured what those who had known Rajiv most often said of him: that he was the kind of person whose absence was felt as keenly as his presence had once been. The memorial drive ended, but the conversation about who he was and what he meant showed no signs of closing.