Kampala

This article is about the city of Kampala. For Old Kampala, see Kampala Hill.
Kampala

From left to right: Kampala skyline, Bahá'í House of Worship on Kikaaya Hill, Uganda National Mosque, Makerere University main building, skyscraper in central business district, and view over Victoria Lake
Kampala

Map of Uganda showing the location of Kampala.

Coordinates: 00°18′49″N 32°34′52″E / 0.31361°N 32.58111°E / 0.31361; 32.58111
Country Uganda
District Kampala
Government
 • Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago
Area
 • Total 189 km2 (73 sq mi)
 • Land 176 km2 (68 sq mi)
 • Water 13 km2 (5 sq mi)
Elevation 1,190 m (3,900 ft)
Population (2011 Estimate)
 • Total 1,659,600
 • Density 9,429.6/km2 (24,423/sq mi)
Demonym(s) Kampalan, Kampalese
Time zone EAT (UTC+3)
Website Homepage

Kampala is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city is divided into five boroughs that oversee local planning: Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Lubaga Division. The city is coterminous with Kampala District. Surrounding Kampala is the rapidly growing Wakiso District, whose population more than doubled between 2002 and 2014 and now stands at over 2 million.[1]

Etymology

Before the arrival of the British colonists, the Kabaka of Buganda had chosen the zone that would become Kampala as a hunting reserve. The area, composed of rolling hills with grassy wetlands in the valleys, was home to several species of antelope, particularly impala. When the British arrived, they called it "Hills of the Impala". The language of the Buganda, Luganda, adopted many English words because of their interactions with the British. The Buganda translated "Hill of the Impala" as Akasozi ke'Empala - "Kasozi" meaning "hill", "ke" meaning "of", and "empala" the plural of "impala". In Luganda, the words "ka'mpala" means "that is of the impala", in reference to a hill, and the single word "Kampala" was adopted as the name for the city that grew out of the Kabaka's hills.[2]

History

Main article: Timeline of Kampala

The city grew as the capital of the Buganda kingdom, from which several buildings survive, including the Kasubi Tombs (built in 1881), the Lubiri Palace, the Buganda Parliament and the Buganda Court of Justice. Severely damaged in the Uganda-Tanzania War, the city has since then been rebuilt with constructions of new construction of hotels, banks, shopping malls, educational institutions, and hospitals and the improvement of war torn buildings and infrastructure. Traditionally, Kampala was a city of seven hills, but over time it has come to have a lot more.[3]

Features

The Kasubi Tombs

The main campus of Makerere University is in the Makerere Hill area of the city.

Kampala also hosts the headquarters of the East African Development Bank on Nakasero Hill and the Uganda Local Governments Association on Entebbe Road.

Kampala was originally built on seven hills, but as its size has increased, it has expanded to more hills than seven. The original seven hills are:

  1. The first hill in historical importance is Kasubi Hill, which is where the Kasubi Tombs of the previous Kabaka of Buganda are located.
  2. The second is Mengo Hill where the present Lubiri (Kabaka's Palace) is and the headquarters of the Buganda Court of Justice and of the Lukiiko, Bugand's Parliament (Bulange).
  3. The third is Kibuli Hill, which is home to the Kibuli Mosque.
  4. The fourth is Namirembe Hill, home to the Namirembe Anglican Cathedral.
  5. The fifth is Lubaga Hill, where the Rubaga Catholic Cathedral is.
  6. The sixth is Nsambya Hill, was the headquarters of the Mill Hill Mission. It now houses Nsambya Hospital.
  7. The seventh is Kampala Hill (Old Kampala), where Frederick Lugard, a British mercenary in the pay of the Imperial British East Africa Company, who arrived in Uganda in the 1890s, built his fort on top of the hill. The original fort was relocated to a different site on the hill in 2003 to accommodate the largest mosque in Uganda. It has a seating capacity of 15,000 people, built with monetary assistance from Libya. The completed mosque was opened officially in June 2007.[4] The relocation of the fort has since been a source of controversy between the Historic Buildings Conservation Trust (HBCT) of Uganda and the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC). The UMSC was given the gazetted land as a gift by President Idi Amin in 1972 during its inauguration.
Gaddafi National Mosque.
A view of suburban Kampala

The city has spread to Nakasero Hill, where there are some hotels, including the Grand Imperial Hotel, the Kampala Hilton Hotel, the Kampala Intercontinental Hotel, the Imperial Royale Hotel, the Kampala Serena Hotel, the Kampala Sheraton Hotel, and the Kampala Speke Hotel.

There are also Tank Hill and Mulago Hill. The city is expanding rapidly to include Makindye Hill and Konge Hill.Kololo Hill, to the east of Nakasero, is the highest hill in the city at 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) above sea level.

Other features of the city include the Uganda Museum, the Ugandan National Theatre, Nakasero Market, and St. Balikuddembe Market (formerly Owino Market). Kampala is also known for its nightlife,[5] which includes several casinos, notably Casino Simba in the Garden City shopping centre, Kampala Casino, and Mayfair Casino. Port Bell on the shores of Lake Victoria is 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away.

Kampala hosts a Bahá'í House of Worship known as the Mother Temple of Africa and is situated on Kikaya Hill on the outskirts of the city. The temple was inaugurated in January 1961.[6]

The Ahmadiyya Central Mosque in Kampala is the central mosque of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, which has six minarets and can hold up to 9,000 worshippers.[7]

Transport

Uganda House, Kampala Road, Kampala

Kampala is served by Entebbe International Airport, which is the largest airport in Uganda.

Boda-bodas (local motorbike transport) are a popular mode of transport that gives access to many areas within and outside the city. Standard fees for these range from USh:1,000 to 2,000 or more. Boda-bodas are useful for passing through rush-hour traffic, although many are poorly maintained and dangerous.[8]

In early 2007, it was announced that Kampala would remove commuter taxis from its streets and replace them with a comprehensive city bus service. (In Kampala, the term "taxi" refers to a 15-seater minibus used as public transport.) The bus service was expected to cover the greater Kampala metropolitan area including Mukono, Mpigi, Bombo, Entebbe, Wakiso and Gayaza. As of December 2011 the service had not yet started.[9] Having successfully completed the Northern Bypass, the government, in collaboration with its stakeholders, now plans to introduce the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in Kampala by 2014. On 12 March 2012, Pioneer Easy Bus Company, a private transport company, started public bus service in Kampala with an estimated 100 buses each with a 60-passenger capacity (30 seated and 30 standing), acquired from China. Another 422 buses were expected in the country in 2012 to complement the current fleet. The buses operate 24 hours daily. The company has a concession to provide public transport in the city for the next five years.[10][11] The buses were impounded for back taxes in December 2013. The company expected to resume operation in February 2015.[12]

In 2014, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni and a China transportation company signed a Memorandum of Understanding, that they would at some point begin embarking on building a light rail system in Kampala, similar to the one recently completed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

On 11 April 2011, the pressure group Activists for Change (A4C) held its first Walk to Work protest near Kampala, in response to a comment by President Museveni on the increased cost of fuel, which had risen by 50 percent between January and April 2011. He said: "What I call on the public to do is to use fuel sparingly. Don't drive to bars."[13][14] The protest, which called on workers to walk to work to highlight the increased cost of transport in Uganda,[13] was disrupted by police, who fired tear gas and arrested three-time presidential candidate Kizza Besigye and Democratic Party leader Norbert Mao.[15] In the course of the protest, Besigye was shot in the right arm by a rubber bullet. The government blamed the violence on protesters.[14]

Climate

Kampala has a tropical rainforest climate (Af) under the Köppen-Geiger climate classification system.[16]

Another facet of Kampala’s weather is that it features two annual wet seasons. There is a long rainy season from August to December and a short rainy season from February to June. However, the shorter rainy season sees substantially heavier rainfall per month, with April typically seeing the heaviest amount of precipitation at an average of around 169 millimetres (6.7 in) of rain.

Climate data for Kampala
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 33
(91)		 36
(97)		 33
(91)		 33
(91)		 29
(84)		 29
(84)		 29
(84)		 29
(84)		 31
(88)		 32
(90)		 32
(90)		 32
(90)		 36
(97)
Average high °C (°F) 28.6
(83.5)		 29.3
(84.7)		 28.7
(83.7)		 27.7
(81.9)		 27.3
(81.1)		 27.1
(80.8)		 26.9
(80.4)		 27.2
(81)		 27.9
(82.2)		 27.7
(81.9)		 27.4
(81.3)		 27.9
(82.2)		 27.8
(82)
Daily mean °C (°F) 23.2
(73.8)		 23.7
(74.7)		 23.4
(74.1)		 22.9
(73.2)		 22.6
(72.7)		 22.4
(72.3)		 22.0
(71.6)		 22.2
(72)		 22.6
(72.7)		 22.6
(72.7)		 22.5
(72.5)		 22.7
(72.9)		 22.73
(72.93)
Average low °C (°F) 17.7
(63.9)		 18.0
(64.4)		 18.1
(64.6)		 18.0
(64.4)		 17.9
(64.2)		 17.6
(63.7)		 17.1
(62.8)		 17.1
(62.8)		 17.2
(63)		 17.4
(63.3)		 17.5
(63.5)		 17.5
(63.5)		 17.6
(63.7)
Record low °C (°F) 12
(54)		 14
(57)		 13
(55)		 14
(57)		 15
(59)		 12
(54)		 12
(54)		 12
(54)		 13
(55)		 13
(55)		 14
(57)		 12
(54)		 12
(54)
Average rainfall mm (inches) 68.4
(2.693)		 63.0
(2.48)		 131.5
(5.177)		 169.3
(6.665)		 117.5
(4.626)		 69.2
(2.724)		 63.1
(2.484)		 95.7
(3.768)		 108.4
(4.268)		 138.0
(5.433)		 148.7
(5.854)		 91.5
(3.602)		 1,264.3
(49.774)
Average rainy days (≥ 1.0 mm) 4.8 5.1 9.5 12.2 10.9 6.3 4.7 6.7 8.6 9.1 8.4 7.4 93.7
Average relative humidity (%) 66 68.5 73 78.5 80.5 78.5 77.5 77.5 75.5 73.5 73 71.5 74.5
Mean monthly sunshine hours 155 170 155 120 124 180 186 155 150 155 150 124 1,824
Source #1: World Meteorological Organization,[17] Climate-Data.org for mean temperatures[16]
Source #2: BBC Weather[18]


Demographics

Location map Kampala
View of Kampala from space

The national population census in 2002 estimated the population of the city at 1,189,150. The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) estimated the population at 1,597,900 in 2010. In 2011, UBOS estimated the mid-year population at 1,659,600.[19]

Kampala has a diverse ethnic population, although the Baganda, the local ethnic group, make up over 60 percent of the greater Kampala region. The city's ethnic makeup has been defined by political and economic factors. During the rule of Milton Obote and Idi Amin, who were both from northern Uganda, a significant number of northern Ugandans moved to Kampala from the 1950s until the mid-1980s. Most served in the armed forces and the police around the areas where the military and police barracks were located - Ntinda, Naguru, Bugolobi, and Mbuya. With the overthrow of Obote in 1986, many northern Ugandans left the city. At the same time, a large number of western Ugandans, particularly the Banyankole, moved to the capital, reflecting the large proportion of western Ugandans in the new government of Yoweri Museveni.[20]

Inter-tribal marriage in Uganda is still uncommon outside large urban centers. Although many Kampala residents have been born and brought up in the city, they still define themselves by their tribal roots and speak their ancestral languages. This is more evident in the suburbs, where tribal languages are spoken widely alongside English, Swahili, and Luganda. In addition to the Baganda and Banyankole, other large ethnic groups include the Basoga, Bafumbira, Batoro, Bakiga, Alur, Bagisu, Banyoro, Iteso, Langi, and Acholi.[21]

Economy

Efforts are underway to relocate heavy industry to the Kampala Business and Industrial Park, located in Namanve, Mukono District, approximately 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) east of the city's central business district,[22] thereby cutting down on city traffic congestion. Some of the businesses that maintain their headquarters in the city center include all of the 25 commercial banks licensed in Uganda; the New Vision Group, the leading news media conglomerate and majority owned by the government; and the Daily Monitor publication, a member of the Kenya-based Nation Media Group. Air Uganda maintained its headquarters in an office complex on Kololo Hill in Kampala.[23] Crown Beverages Limited, the sole Pepsi-Cola franchise bottler in the country, is situated in Nakawa, a division of Kampala, about 5 kilometres (3 mi), east of the city centre.[24]

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Uganda: Administrative Division". Retrieved 4 July 2015.
  2. ↑ "Kampala: Origin of The Name". Myetymology.com. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  3. ↑ "History of the City of Kampala". Ugandatravelguide.com. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  4. ↑ Madinah Tebajjukira, and Charles Ariko (9 June 2007). "Libyans Open Old Kampala Mosque". New Vision. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  5. ↑ A Night Out in Kampala, the City That (Really) Never Sleeps
  6. ↑ Fifty years on, Uganda's Baha'i temple stands as a symbol of unity and progress
  7. ↑ Ahmadiyya Muslim Mosques Around the World, pg. 112
  8. ↑ Francis Kagolo, and Joseph Kariuki (24 August 2008). "Deadly Ride: Boda Bodas Leading Cause of Hospital Casualties". New Vision. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  9. ↑ "Pioneer Easy buses to offer 24-hour service". Retrieved 25 May 2015.
  10. ↑ Muhairwe, Priscilla (5 April 2011). "Pioneer Easy Bus Set to Introduce Electronic Pay Buses". The Independent (Uganda). Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  11. ↑ "Pioneer Buses Start Service, Taxi Strike Flops". Welcometokampala.com. 12 March 2012. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  12. ↑ Pioneer buses back: what has changed?
  13. 1 2 "Deadly Crackdown on Uganda's Walk-to-Work Protests". TIME.com. 23 April 2011. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
  14. 1 2 Musaazi Namiti. "Uganda walk-to-work protests kick up dust". Retrieved 25 May 2015.
  15. ↑ "Kizza Besigye held over Uganda 'Walk to Work' protest". BBC News. 12 April 2011. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
  16. 1 2 "Climate: Kampala - Climate graph, Temperature graph, Climate table". Climate-Data.org. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  17. ↑ "World Weather Information Service - Kampala". World Meteorological Organization. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  18. ↑ "Average Conditions Kampala, Uganda". BBC Weather. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  19. ↑ UBOS. "Estimated Population of Kampala In 2002, 2010 & 2011" (PDF). Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS). Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  20. ↑ Jones, Ben (2 April 2009). "Museveni's Rule Has Divided Uganda". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  21. ↑ "Ethnic Groups of Uganda". Cia.gov. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  22. ↑ GFC (3 February 2016). "Distance between Kampala Road, Kampala, Central Region, Uganda and Namanve Industrial Park, Mukono, Central Region, Uganda". Globefeed.com (GFC). Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  23. ↑ Vision Reporter (23 February 2009). "Air Uganda Increases Flights to Dar". Kampala: New Vision. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  24. ↑ Administrator (14 October 2013). "Two decades of positive growth for Crown Beverages". The Independent (Uganda). Kampala. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  25. ↑ BRC (3 February 2016). "John Mugabi: Biography". Boxrec.com (BRC). Retrieved 3 February 2016.

External links

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Kampala.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kampala.

Coordinates: 00°18′49″N 32°34′52″E / 0.31361°N 32.58111°E / 0.31361; 32.58111

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