Hajji Ayub Kariisa

Biography:

Hajji Ayub Kariisa was born and grew up in the strikingly beautiful hills of Ruhaama, Western Uganda. He is self-taught, determined, and vigorous, yet pleasantly calm. He encourages fighting for what anyone desires and believes in and to do it with the help of Almighty Allah because nothing great comes easy and with Allah everything is possible.

When Hajji Ayub was six years old, he was sent to Ruhaama Primary School. He had a close working relationship with his father that he chose him among his siblings to be his assistant and confidant. He paused his formal education at the age of twelve, a year before high school mainly to run errands for his father and at the same time run a family business whereby, he learnt a lot of things from him, and the most important lesson was that of being patient.

Unlike his other siblings who ventured for opportunities in bigger cities and other countries, Hajji Ayub stayed grounded at the family’s ancestral home. He had the sole responsibility of taking care of the aging parents and eleven younger siblings five of whom were less than ten years old when their father passed away in 1979. He ensured they completed their primary education before he sent them to be under the care and guidance of the family’s father figure Dr. Sheikh Anas Kalisa who along other older siblings, sponsored the younger ones for the rest of their education careers through universities and beyond. Hajji Ayub made sure to keep in touch with all the siblings wherever they were studying.

Hajji Ayub is an accomplished family historian who holds the keys to the Kariisa ancestral home and oversees the activations of all the Kariisa Foundation engagements in Western Uganda.

Some of the major accomplishments:

First person to introduce computer services in the city of Mbarara.
Launched the first digital watches in Western Uganda in 1970s.
Prepared and published Examinations for primary and high schools in Western Uganda.
Gained expertise in motor mechanical engineering and got certification in computer engineering in both hardware and software.
Functioned as the main expert in Arts and Graphics in Mbarara city for many years.
Served as Fleet Director for Katatumba Resort Hotel, the best resort in the region at the time.
From an incredibly young age, he was exposed to diary farming, a profession that he still holds dear to this day by employing modern techniques of zero grazing.
Among the achievements Hajji Ayub is most proud of was his involvement and contribution in translating the holy Quran from Arabic to the Runyankore Language. He was also responsible for typesetting and designing the 40 Hadith translation to the Runyankore language. As a project sponsored by the Kariisa Foundation he was given the sole responsibility of typesetting, designing and also part of the proofreading the Quran Translation from Arabic to the Runyankore language. He read each word of the 960+ pages of the translation at least four times to ensure there was no mistake.

May Allah be pleased with his work and the work of key translators, the late Sheikh Abdunoor Kaduyu and the late Dr. Sheikh Anas Abdunoor Kaliisa