Apart from the story of the kidney patient, I didn't come across other rumours of deaths, but cases of the products not working as miraculously as promised were easy to find. After all, TIENS products are not medicines. Some of the company's goods have been registered with Uganda's National Drugs Authority, but as 'food & dietary supplements'. In fact, stories of TIENS products not fully working were even common amongst some of TIENS most ardent fans.

 

Back in Iganga, with the courtyard seminar over and Wasswa busy talking to a small circle of attendees eager to hear more, Sarah*, 25, moves towards the back of the courtyard closer to where I am sitting.

 

During the seminar, she had given testimony telling of how she'd taken her baby boy, who was suffering from sickle cell anaemia, to several hospitals before she came to TIENS. Many of those who told their stories directed them matter-of-factly at Julius or Wasswa, but Sarah had turned to face the crowd and spoken passionately as she'd explained how the products worked wonders.

 

Asked a few more questions after the symposium, however, her story reveals itself to be far less straightforward. It transpires that her son is still ill. So ill, in fact, that she recently quit her nursing job to look after him full-time. Sarah nevertheless insists that the TIENS medicines work and says the reason her son is still suffering is because his treatment is incomplete. She bought half the products the boy needs for a full recovery but is struggling to find the money to purchase the rest.

 

Robert, 30, tells a similar tale. He too claims to be a firm believer in the healing powers of TIENS, and acted as my translator throughout the seminar, seemingly on Wasswa's instruction. Robert says that he came to TIENS with kidney problems and maintains the products worked where hospital treatments failed. Like Sarah's son, however, he admits that he is still in pain. Firstly, he attributes this to the fact that his kidney treatment is incomplete; he too has had financial difficulties. Secondly, he explains that the TIENS diagnostic test revealed his kidneys are not his only problem; while his original condition may have improved, he now knows he is suffering from other conditions that need to be cured too.

 

Sarah and Robert reveal that they have each spent USH 460,000 ($180) on products so far, paying in instalments from what they could borrow or scrape together. Sarah says she needs USH 500,000 ($200) more to complete her son's treatment, but doesn't know where the money will come from given that she is now jobless and that the father of her son is in school. Robert says he needs around USH 200,000 ($80) more, but says that as a "peasant", he too will struggle.

 

"I haven't balanced it well," he says, "but I hope it will balance out soon. I am still feeling pain."

 

It is not a coincidence that Robert, Sarah and a few others who spoke to me had all purchased exactly USH 460,000 worth of products. Nor is it an inexplicable peculiarity that individuals with no reliable source of income had shelled out what little they had, and more, on TIENS products. After all, TIENS is more than just a supplier of health supplements.

 

In the symposium in Iganga, once Julius had waxed lyrical about various products, it was time for Wasswa to take over the stage to talk about another benefit of TIENS. Though not before Julius had the opportunity to rouse the crowd.

 

After finishing his demonstration of TIENS' disease-curing sanitary pads, Julius put down the product and strolled ponderously along the front of the courtyard before turning to face the audience. "Tianshi!" he shouted suddenly. "Together we share!" came back the reply on cue, a hundred voices amplified by the concrete walls. "Tianshi!" Julius proclaimed a second time, a little louder. "One dream!" came the soaring response. "Tianshi!" yelled the doctor a third time. "The best of all!!" bellowed the crowd.

 

Next, Julius taught the audience a new trick. Since all points in ours palms relate to different internal organs, he explained, clapping stimulates the whole body and works as a kind of "first aid." He held his hands apart and, together with the crowd, clapped out a rhythm that crackled across the courtyard. Julius explained that the louder you clap, the greater the benefits to your internal organs, before holding out his hands and going again. And again.

 

Finally, looking satisfied, Julius completed his session and handed over to Wasswa.

 

"TIENS is not just good for your health," the salesman proclaimed, taking to the stage, "it is also good for your wealth. If you register with TIENS, they will start to pay you. You come here for treatment, but over time, you will start to get a salary."

 

Over the next few minutes, Wasswa explained that this is what he had done and that he was not only receiving thousands of dollars every month now, but had been taken on international trips by the company, received huge cash bonuses and been given a brand new car.

 

"When you reach a certain level, you start earning," he said. "And it does not matter if you have no qualifications or education. TIENS does not care if you are educated. TIENS only cares how many products you buy and how many people you recruit."

 

Wasswa said these words with a weighty earnestness, but they were not news to half the courtyard. Robert, Sarah and many others around them - all recognisable by the golden lion-shaped badges they were wearing - were not just TIENS patients, but members and distributors already. They were here on Wasswa's instructions to give testimony and help convince others to join too. For these returning members, TIENS is not just a medical supplier, but a livelihood, an investment, and a chance to follow in Wasswa's jet-setting footsteps.

 

Sitting behind his desk at the TIENS-Uganda headquarters, located at the top of King Fahd Plaza on a busy street in Kampala, Kibuuka Mazinga Ambrose is delighted to explain how the business model works in more detail.

 

"Anyone can join," says the company chairperson, wearing a bright yellow TIENS-branded cap. "All you need to do is pay a small initial fee of $20." Once you have done this, you can buy products at wholesale prices and sell them on at a profit. However, this is just the start, he says. You don't get rich by selling a few bottles of herbal supplements. Under TIENS' model, there are eight ranks and you need to move up the levels to really start enjoying the benefits.

 

The first few levels can be reached simply by buying more products, which essentially brings with it a small discount on goods. However, to get to the bigger rewards, you need to start recruiting others. This way, you receive a commission whenever they make purchases and also get rewarded if they recruit their own followers.

 

The more people you recruit and the more they recruit in turn, the higher you move up the rankings, and soon you can just sit back and watch as the commissions roll in. Furthermore, once you've reached the 8-star level and keep growing your network, you will eventually become a Bronze Lion, then a Silver Lion, then a Gold Lion, and enjoy rewards of cash prizes, international trips, a brand new 4×4 car, a luxury yacht, a private jet, and finally a "Luxurious Villa Palace."

 

"It's all about growing your network; their success is your success," says Ambrose cheerily. "TIENS does not care who you are. Anyone can do it, and there is no limit on what you can earn."

As the TIENS Guide puts it, joining the company means: "You stop struggling financially," there is "little risk of losing", and "if you work for 5 years you can retire."

 

According the company website, over 200,000 Ugandans have joined TIENS, eclipsing even the number of government school teachers in the country.

 

Given Uganda's high rates of unemployment - youth unemployment is over 80% according to some estimates - the appeal of membership is clear to see. Decent jobs are scarce and rags-to-riches stories like Wasswa's are even scarcer.

 

Furthermore, the company's image is significantly helped by the Ugandan government. Not only does TIENS advertise on the Health Ministry's calendar, but according to Wasswa, around ten MPs are members of the company and at the Iganga seminar, Stephen Wante, the mayor of Bugembe, made a guest appearance. In 2011 meanwhile, Vice-President Edward Ssekandi officiated a ceremony in which a distributor was awarded a car and organised for TIENS to donate some of its products to a government health centre. A photograph of the Ssekandi shaking hands with TIENS' president also has pride of place on the company website.

 

However, despite all of TIENS' promises of wealth and perceived legitimacy, actually making money from the scheme is virtually impossible. At the TIENS headquarters, where members can print out their balance sheets, many leave the office holding spreadsheets indicating that they are owed almost nothing, if anything at all. Meanwhile, back in Iganga, several members who had joined several months ago, attended every biweekly seminar, bought lots of products, and gone on recruitment drives, revealed that they had not earned any notable income either. It seems many others have also abandoned the scheme after finding they could not make it work.

 

According to most TIENS members - both those who are profiting and those who aren't - the reason for these failures is simple: the individual did not work hard enough. When I asked Sarah why she thought she hadn't made any money after being a member for five months, for example, she hesitated before Robert helpfully chipped in to say "it means she is not performing well." Yet Robert had barely received any income either, despite having been a member for six months and having recruited nine people. Other members who had yet to make money also suggested their situation was down to bad luck or poor performance.

 

This feeling was perhaps most starkly expressed after the seminar as I spoke to Wasswa within earshot of three members, all of whom had been distributors for up to six months yet not come anywhere close to getting a decent income. I asked Wasswa how long it typically takes to break even. "Some people can take a month, but sometimes maybe two months," he replied. What if someone has been working hard but hasn't started getting an income after 6 months, I followed up. "Six months?" Wasswa exclaimed. "No, it's rare. Very rare. If someone is serious, they should be on a high level and earning well after six months."

 

I looked over at the three recruits who all just stared at the floor, looking sheepish and, I thought, ashamed.

 

The reality, however, is that failure under TIENS is not the individual's fault. In fact, for the vast majority of members, the business model is designed to fail. TIENS in Uganda appears to be little more than thin-veiled pyramid scheme. Recruiters emphasise that to join, all you need to do is pay a $20 membership fee. But in reality that is only the start. Members have to buy products to move up the rankings and then continue to buy goods to keep their accounts open.

 

Members could make money selling these products, but the idea of shifting all these goods is a non-starter. Not only does each distributor have to compete with 200,000 other sellers as well as 30 well-established stores, but it doesn't even make economic sense for customers to buy from individual members when they could sign up to TIENS themselves and get much lower prices anyway.

 

This is perhaps why Wasswa and other recruiters barely even mention selling products and why the emphasis instead is very heavily on "growing your network." The incentives for signing up new members are higher than those for sales; the training sessions teach recruits how to sell membership rather than goods; and the TIENS Guide's main piece of practical advice is a 6-step plan of how to "make a name list of at least 100 in a shortest time possible."

 

If not from selling products to the public then, the bulk of the money in the TIENS system comes members' own pockets as they pay to join, pay to move up the rankings, and pay to keep their accounts open. And it is this same money that finances top-level distributors' huge salaries, shiny new cars and trips around the world. Given all the money in the system comes from members, the only way this tiny elite profits is because the rest of Uganda's 200,000 members do not.

 

TIENS refer to itself as a 'multi-level marketing', but in reality it seems to be an unsustainable and fraudulent pyramid scheme designed to extract money from the many to pay the salaries of a few.

 

I later contacted Ambrose, Wasswa and Jamba George, another 8-star recruiter, for their response to these allegations, but they all declined. The manager of TIENS-Uganda, a Chinese expatriate, and the company's global headquarters in Tianjin did not make a comment either.

 

It should also be noted that TIENS is not just in Uganda, nor is it the only scheme of its kind. The American firms Forever Living and GNLD also deal in health supplements and follow a multi-level marketing model, while TIENS' presence on the continent seems to be particularly strong in West Africa, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe. It is further notable that TIENS has offices in many Western countries, though the products there seem to be marketed more directly as mere food supplements.

 

Back in the courtyard in Iganga, Robert is listing the products he was prescribed six months ago. Like so many others faced with Uganda's struggling healthcare system, Robert ended up seeking alternatives and eventually ended up at Wasswa's busy but welcoming clinic.

 

The products worked, Robert insists. Up to a point. He just wishes, he says, that he could finish the treatment and be fully cured of his kidney problems as well as the other health conditions detected by the diagnostic test he underwent. But he cannot afford it.

 

Robert has no other jobs - he says there are hardly any jobs available in the area - and has five children to support. When he joined the company half a year ago, he thought TIENS was the answer to all his prayers, but he is still in pain and deeper in debt.

 

"Money is a problem, he says. "It is not easy to recruit people and I spend USH12,000 ($5) every week on transport to come to these seminars."

 

I ask him why he is still part of the company despite losing money each week. He pauses for a moment before answering, "I believe I will balance my accounts soon. And I am close to moving up to the next level when I will be able to earn more."

 

He explains that a technical misunderstanding delayed him moving up a rank, but that it should be sorted out soon. I point out that even if he moves up a level and earns slightly more than now, he will still be earning a tiny fraction of what he has invested. He nods in agreement, but adds, with a faint smile, "But with TIENS, time is on your side."

 

But what if it still doesn't work out, I push. What if Wasswa is the exception that proves the rule? What if it never works out? Robert looks me in the eye for a few seconds before gazing out across the courtyard where a few groups of attendees are still standing around chatting.

 

"If the money defeats me, " he says quietly, turning back to me, "I will disappear."

 

*Some names have been changed to protect interviewees' identities.

James Wan is editor of African Arguments. He was an associate producer on the Aljazeera documentary Uganda's Health Pyramid. He is a fellow of the China-Africa Reporting Project, managed by University of Witwatersrand.

 

Some quick notes:

'Robert' in the article is actually named Michael Halungu. His identity was protected on publication but he has since renounced the company and is interviewed in the Aljazeera documentary.

By James Wan