Kampala

Kampala is the capital city of Uganda. It is the biggest city in the country.

The city is spread over many hills.

Kampala is the capital of Uganda, a country in East Africa. The encyclopedia Universalis describes a city of hills separated by marshy valleys, with the neighborhoods near Lake Victoria and on the airy hillsides favored since the 1990s.

Uganda's census of May 2024 counted 1,797,722 people in Kampala City. The next biggest city, Nansana, had 692,478, so Kampala is more than twice as big.

City Population's tables from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics give Kampala City 458,503 people in 1980, 774,241 in 1991, 1,189,142 in 2002, 1,507,080 in 2014 and 1,797,722 in the census of 10 May 2024, on about 195 km². Nansana (692,478), Kira (459,827) and Makindye-Ssabagabo (439,605) follow.

Universalis adds that by the early 21st century the urban area stretched about 30 km out from the center, with about 2 million people living in the wider agglomeration at that time.

On one of Kampala's hills are the tombs of Buganda's kings. The main building is round, with a roof of grass.

Long ago, newcomers settled on the other hills.

On Kasubi Hill stand the Tombs of Buganda Kings, a World Heritage Site since 2001. The main building was a royal palace, built in 1882, which became a burial place for kings in 1884. It is round, with a dome-shaped roof, and is built from wooden poles, thatch, reeds and wattle.

In the 1800s the king's palace stood on Mengo Hill. Newcomers settled on the hills around it: missionaries on some, and traders, soldiers and officials on Nakasero.

UNESCO describes the Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi (inscribed 2001, 26.8 ha) as a mostly farmed hillside whose hilltop core is the former palace of the kabakas, built in 1882 and converted into the royal burial ground in 1884. Four kabakas' tombs lie in the Muzibu-Azaala-Mpanga, a circular domed building of wooden poles, spear grass, reeds and wattle. A fire destroyed this building, and the site was on the List of World Heritage in Danger from 2010 to 2023.

Universalis says that from the mid-19th century the palace stood on Mengo hill, and that newcomers settled on neighboring hills: Protestants at Namirembe, Catholics at Rubaga and Nsambya, Muslims at Kisubi, and traders, soldiers and administrators at Nakasero.

Kampala keeps growing. Almost four times as many people live there now as in 1980.

Builders in Buganda kept the old skill of building with poles and grass.

Kampala has grown fast: its population almost quadrupled between the 1980 and 2024 censuses. Universalis notes that economic growth, new investment in buildings and factories and, from the 1990s, new ways of running city services have changed the city.

After the fire, UNESCO noted that the traditional skills of building with poles, spear grass, reeds and wattle were still alive, so the burned tomb building at Kasubi could be rebuilt.

Between the 1980 census (458,503) and the 2024 census (1,797,722), Kampala City's population grew almost fourfold. Universalis says economic growth, renewed property and industrial investment and, from the 1990s, a market-based management of city services have made the city's neighborhoods more uneven.

UNESCO's statement written after the fire stressed that the cultural traditions of building in poles, spear grass, reeds and wattle were still vibrant enough to allow the main tomb building at Kasubi to be recreated.