East African Medical Vitals Injects UGX 10m In The 13th Kabaka’s Birthday Run

What a Pair of EAMV Surgical Gloves, a Kabaka’s Birthday, and a UGX 593 Trillion Plan Have in Common

Yesterday, 31 March 2026, inside the stately corridors of Bulange, Mengo, EAMV Managing Director Brian Kavuya handed a UGX 10 million cheque to Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga, confirming the company’s Silver Sponsorship of the 13th Kabaka’s Birthday Run. It was easy to reduce to a photo opportunity. But to do so would be to miss the deeper current beneath the surface.

Read More About EAMV.

East African Medical Vitals is the first manufacturer of powder-free latex surgical gloves on the African continent. Its factory in Namanve Industrial Park, Mukono, produces roughly 95 million gloves a year. Its participation in a cultural health marathon reveals a convergence that Uganda’s policymakers have been scripting for years: local industry, traditional authority, and national health goals pulling in the same direction.

A Run That Reads Like a National Development Blueprint

Uganda’s Fourth National Development Plan (NDP IV), covering FY 2025/26 to 2029/30, was approved by Parliament in January 2025. Its goal: higher household income and employment for socio-economic transformation, pursued under the banner of “sustainable industrialization for inclusive growth, employment and wealth creation.” It is the first of three five-year blueprints designed to deliver a tenfold expansion of the economy by 2040.

NDP IV rests on five strategic objectives: increasing production, productivity and value addition; enhancing human capital development; supporting the private sector to drive growth and create jobs; building strategic infrastructure; and strengthening governance. 

EAMV’s sponsorship of the Kabaka Run touches at least three of these in a single event; a Ugandan factory turning imported latex into a finished medical device (value addition and import substitution); a cultural institution mobilising over 130,000 citizens around a public health message (human capital); and a private company channelling revenue back into community health advocacy (private sector as development partner). This is NDP IV happening in the real world.

Made in Namanve: The Industrial Story Behind the Cheque

EAMV was established by Ugandan entrepreneur Ben Brian Kavuya at a cost of approximately USD 14.5 million, with significant financing from the East African Development Bank. Since producing its first glove in 2021, an event that drew President Museveni to Namanve, the company has grown into a regional medical supplies partner serving East and Central Africa, holding ISO 13485:2016 certification for medical devices and Q-Mark certification from the Uganda National Bureau of Standards.

The numbers carry strategic weight. At full capacity, EAMV meets approximately 70 percent of Uganda’s