Professionally, Kayondo was a teacher-turned entrepreneur/businessman. In between the two careers, he added on another qualification in accountancy. He was also a family man with grown up children who are all professionals in different fields.
Kayondo said he ventured into business about three decades ago with initial capital of Shs30, 000 which he saved from transport refunds, teaching and book allowances that would be provided to students in higher education of learning by the then government.
Unlike his friends who invested their money in music systems, cassettes, and huge mattresses (bedding), he acquired a small stall in Masaka market where he sold merchandise ranging from toothpaste, shoe polish to plastic cups, among other manufactured products.
“My intention then was to supplement on the meager salary I was getting as a teacher at Masaka Senior Secondary School,” Kayondo said in an interview with Daily Monitor in 2014.
“Before our salary was significantly increased in 1984, survival meant that a teacher would either moonlight—teaching in more than one school, or take both morning and afternoon teaching sessions to raise some more money,” he said.
Between 1986 and 1987, he graduated from a stall to a lock-up shop. In 1990, he moved to a spacious premises in Masaka Town before making his way to Kampala City in 1995.
“I was dealing in ladies’ items such as cosmetics, necklaces and several other beauty items,” he added then.\
Everest Kayondo succumbed to the novel coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday at Lifeline International Hospital in Zana, Kampala where he had been admitted with Covid-19 symptoms on Saturday.
May his soul rest in peace.