Magigye: Almost hard to reach
While Magigye is only a few kilometres away from Gayaza, accessing the area in public means at times can be hard. Photo by Stephen Otage
On a cloudy Tuesday morning, I board a taxi going to Magigye.
It is approximately 23 kilometres from the city centre. There are two routes that lead to Magigye; you can choose to use Gayaza Road upto Gayaza trading centre and drive towards Busiika or Zirobwe or go through the Kisaasi to Kyanja Road and still connect to Gayaza trading centre.
When you use public means, you will use approximately Shs5,000 and on arrival, you will notice that the place has a lot of vacant land with green vegetation. The residential houses in the area are scattered and distant with a number of retail shops and food stalls located just along the main road.
Why the developments
Approximately eight years ago, 24-year old Simon Odiopio, a resident who was born in Magigye recalls it as a place that was bushy, with many trees. At that time, he says there were very few people who owned houses in the area.
Magigye started developing when the road to Zirobwe was under construction which saw different real estate companies buying land in the area and connecting it with power and water. Odiopio adds that the more people flocked Magigye in search for land, the more its cost increased.
Around the same time, people who owned large chunks of land, started partitioning them into smaller plots to make them easy to sell, with many opting to use it for agriculture until today, and other commercial purposes. The presence of the Ugachick farms has also contributed to the development of the Magigye.
Cost of land and housing
Today, Odiopio says a 50 by 100 feet Mailo plot of land without a land title costs between Shs3.5m to Shs8m while the same of land with a title costs Shs25m. For a 100 by 100 feet size of land, he says it costs between Shs27m to Shs35m depending on the buyer’s bargaining power and the seller’s need for money.
Challenges
“What most people don’t like about Magigye is that you have to board a taxi twice if you don’t drive your own car to reach the place. Sometimes the taxis from Kampala to Gayaza stop along the way and you have to devise other means to reach the place,” Segawa adds.
“The only challenge the place still has is that there are areas that have no piped water.
The local people use water from boreholes that are always far from their homes, wells and those who sell it in jerricans on bicycles,” Odiopio concludes, adding that Magigye is a place with a cool and quiet environment suitable for people looking forward to constructing residential houses.
Costs
Nicholas Segawa, a resident of Magigye says a single self-contained room goes for between Shs30,000 and Shs70,000 while a double bedroom self-contained house in a fence goes for between Shs150,000 and Shs300,000 depending on its proximity to the road.
For a self-contained family house, rent ranges from between Shs500,000 to Shs750,000, depending on its size and the number of bedrooms. “However, getting a residential house available for rent is a bit hard because it is more of a permanent residential area,” he says.
