Uganda’s High Court has cleared the way for a decisive shareholders’ meeting that could formally reshape the ownership and governance of one of East Africa’s most talked-about digital health startups—Rocket Health—bringing a dramatic corporate saga that has unfolded over the past several years closer to its next chapter.
In a ruling delivered on March 3, 2026, Justice Bonny Isaac Teko authorised Medical Concierge Group Limited (MCG), the Ugandan operating company behind Rocket Health, to convene and hold a members’ meeting even in the absence of Dr. Davis Musiimenta Musinguzi, the company’s co-founder and former chief executive.
The decision effectively removes the last procedural obstacle that had stalled a series of corporate actions linked to the restructuring of Rocket Health following its merger into the regional healthcare platform MYDAWA.
The ruling, issued in Company Cause No. 0020 of 2025, allows Rocket Health Africa Corporation—the majority shareholder—to constitute quorum alone for purposes of passing key resolutions, including those related to share transfers and changes in the company’s directorship.
Yet behind this procedural ruling lies a much larger story—one that traces the rise of a pioneering Ugandan health-tech startup, its rapid expansion backed by international venture capital, a dramatic founder-investor power struggle, and ultimately a corporate takeover that reshaped the region’s digital healthcare landscape.
The Rise of Uganda’s Telemedicine Pioneer
Rocket Health was founded in 2012 by a group of young Ugandan medical and finance professionals determined to transform access to healthcare through technology.
Led by Dr. Davis Musinguzi as chief executive, the founding team—which included Dr. John Mark Bwanika, Dr. William Lubega, Hope Fortunate Achiro, and Fiona Nuwamanya—set out to build a digital healthcare platform that would bring medical services closer to patients.
At a time when Uganda’s healthcare system was largely hospital-centric, Rocket Health pioneered a telemedicine model combining remote doctor consultations, medicine delivery, mobile laboratory services and digital prescriptions.
The idea was simple but ambitious: if patients could access banking, education and commerce through their phones, why not healthcare?
The concept quickly gained traction. Rocket Health grew to serve tens of thousands of patients and secured partnerships with major insurers and institutions. One of its early milestones came in 2015 when it won a USAID-funded project that expanded its healthcare services across dozens of districts in Uganda.
The success positioned Rocket Health as one of the region’s most promising digital health ventures.
Venture Capital Arrives
By 2022, Rocket Health’s growth had attracted international investors eager to tap into Africa’s emerging digital healthcare market.
That year, the company closed a US$5 million Series A funding round led by Creadev Africa, with participation from Grenfell Holdings and LoftyInc Capital Management. The investment marked a turning point in Rocket Health’s journey.
Beyond injecting capital, the deal introduced institutional shareholders with expectations for faster regional expansion, stronger governance structures and scalable growth.
The funding was earmarked for a bold expansion strategy: upgrading Rocket Health’s digital health platform, expanding telemedicine services into Kenya, building new healthcare hubs across Uganda, and developing a mobile application that would integrate consultations, prescriptions and patient records into a single ecosystem.
For a time, the plan appeared to be working.
But rapid expansion came at a cost.
Growth Pressures and Investor Tensions
According to people familiar with the company’s operations, Rocket Health’s expansion consumed capital faster than expected.
Several ambitious projects—including regional expansion and new logistics infrastructure—required sustained funding, while revenues struggled to keep pace with the pace of investment.
At roughly the same time, the company reportedly faced a substantial tax claim from the Uganda Revenue Authority estimated at about US$400,000, further straining its finances.
As the cash crunch intensified, tensions began to emerge between Rocket Health’s founders and its institutional investors.
Investors reportedly signalled that additional funding would only be made available if the founders stepped back from executive management.
The founders, led by Dr. Musinguzi, resisted.
What followed was a prolonged shareholder standoff that would ultimately reshape the company’s future.
The MYDAWA Deal
By mid-2024, the impasse had reached breaking point.
Rocket Health’s investors began exploring strategic alternatives, culminating in a deal that would fold the Ugandan startup into MYDAWA, a Kenya-based digital healthcare platform backed by international private equity.
MYDAWA, founded by entrepreneur Neil O’Leary, had already been expanding across East Africa and had acquired Guardian Health, one of Uganda’s leading pharmacy chains.
The merger created a larger healthcare platform combining:
- MYDAWA’s pharmaceutical and e-commerce infrastructure
- Guardian Health’s physical pharmacy network
- Rocket Health’s telemedicine technology.
Under the transaction, Rocket Health’s investors agreed to swap their shares for equity in the enlarged MYDAWA platform.
Dr. Musinguzi initially remained in his role as CEO following the merger.
But the arrangement proved short-lived.
Within months of the deal closing in August 2024, he was removed from the position and replaced by Kamara Linda Billiart, a former regional manager at Guardian Health.
The leadership change effectively marked the end of founder control at Rocket Health.
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Dr. Musinguzi’s departure triggered a series of legal disputes that have since spilled into Uganda’s courts.
One strand of the dispute relates to his claim that he is entitled to US$100,000 under the share swap agreement concluded as part of the MYDAWA merger.
His lawyers have argued that disputes arising from the transaction should be resolved through arbitration in London under the rules of the London Court of International Arbitration.
However, the latest High Court case concerned a separate issue: the governance of Medical Concierge Group Limited, the company that operates Rocket Health’s services in Uganda.
Court records show that the company has only two shareholders.
Rocket Health Africa Corporation holds 199,999 shares, while Dr. Musinguzi holds a single share.
Under the company’s articles, at least two shareholders are required to constitute quorum at a general meeting.
According to the applicant, Antony Wood—a director of Rocket Health Africa Corporation—efforts to convene meetings repeatedly failed because Dr. Musinguzi declined to attend.
The company argued that this absence had effectively paralysed its governance and prevented it from approving key corporate decisions linked to the MYDAWA transaction.
These included transferring shares and assets to MyDawa Holding Company Limited, altering the company’s directorship, and approving the winding up of Rocket Health Africa Corporation.
Arbitration or Corporate Governance?
Dr. Musinguzi’s lawyers challenged the application, arguing that the dispute fell within the scope of the share swap agreement and should therefore be resolved through arbitration in London.
But Justice Teko rejected that argument.
The judge ruled that Medical Concierge Group Limited was not a signatory to the share swap agreement and could not be bound by its arbitration clause.
Instead, the matter before the court concerned corporate governance under Uganda’s Companies Act.
The court emphasised that the ability of a company to convene meetings and pass resolutions is fundamental to corporate management and cannot be subordinated to contractual provisions contained in a separate transaction agreement.
A Company Held Hostage
In his ruling, Justice Teko concluded that the company had reached a governance deadlock.
The judge observed that meetings are the foundation of corporate decision-making, enabling companies to debate issues, pass resolutions and comply with statutory obligations.
Without such meetings, the company’s operations risked grinding to a halt.
The court characterised the situation as a case of minority shareholder obstruction that threatened the continuity of the company’s operations.
“Without meetings, the company would not be able to make decisions and pass resolutions,” the judge noted, warning that withholding participation to deny quorum effectively held the company hostage.
The Court’s Orders
Invoking Section 138 of the Companies Act, which allows the High Court to intervene where it is impracticable to convene a meeting under a company’s articles, the court granted the application.
Justice Teko authorised Medical Concierge Group Limited to convene and hold a shareholders’ meeting with Rocket Health Africa Corporation alone constituting quorum.
The court also allowed the company to dispense with the usual 21-day notice period for meetings and directed that any resolutions passed be registered with the Uganda Registration Services Bureau.
Dr. Musinguzi remains free to attend the meeting if he wishes.
What Comes Next
The decision now clears the path for the company to move forward with long-delayed corporate actions tied to the MYDAWA restructuring.
For MYDAWA and its investors, the ruling removes a governance obstacle that had stalled implementation of the merger’s final stages.
For Dr. Musinguzi, the ruling does not extinguish his claims under the share swap agreement, which may still be pursued through arbitration or other legal channels.
But the broader significance of the case extends beyond the courtroom.
Rocket Health’s journey—from a bold Ugandan startup to a component of a regional healthcare platform—illustrates both the promise and the pressures facing Africa’s emerging tech ventures.
Rapid growth, venture capital expectations and the realities of scaling capital-intensive businesses often force founders and investors into difficult choices.
In Rocket Health’s case, those choices have culminated in one of the most consequential startup power struggles in East Africa’s digital healthcare sector.
