Shakib speaks on rumours he was Ivan Ssemwanga's 'farm boy'

03 July 2024

• Shakib is currently married to the late Ivan's wife Zari Hassan.

Shakib Cham Lutaaya, the husband of socialite Zari Hassan, has for the first time spoken about his relationship with Zari’s late husband, Ivan Ssemwanga.

On a show discussing his life on the YouTube channel Zari&ShakibTV, Shakib denied the long-standing rumours circulating online that he once worked as a servant for the late Ssemwanga.

The muscular celeb said that he has been hearing these rumours for a long time, but they are completely untrue, as he met Ssemwanga in South Africa.

"It’s a lie, those are just stories. I never worked for the late Ivan [Ssemwanga]. In my life, I have never worked as a farm boy. I am very smart and there are certain things I can never do," Shakib said.

Regarding a picture of him as a young man with artist Diamond and the late Ivan Ssemwanga, Shakib said that at that time he was working at a company in South Africa where Diamond was invited to perform.

"The pictures are real, not photoshopped. They were taken several years ago. You know Diamond is a celebrity. While in South Africa, there was a time I was working for a certain company and Diamond was invited to perform at our company, so I decided to take a picture with him as his fan," he said.

"At that time, he hadn’t even started dating my wife [Zari]," he added.

He also clarified the picture with the late Ssemwanga, saying that he was the chairman of Ugandans living in South Africa, so it was natural for him to establish a friendship with him.

"I lived in South Africa for a very long time, and he [Ivan] was our chairman, we Ugandans living there. So it’s obvious that being a Ugandan and you being my chairman, I had to be close to you, we had to talk," Shakib explained.