The making of Kampala

What you need to know:

The journey. From a small ‘knoll’ on the top of Kampala hill, the capital of Uganda was born. Kampala grew on two fronts; One was a fight against poor sanitation in neighbouring areas controlled by the Mengo government and another by the willing Baganda land owners who wanted to have their land incorporated in better organised areas where they would earn a lot more from tenants and squatters.

It was a small camp on the hill, housing Frederick Lugard who had come to Uganda as a representative of the Imperial British East African Company that gave birth to the present-day capital of Uganda. From his camp, at what is now known as Old Kampala, the capital city of Uganda was born.

“He (Kabaka Mwanga) gave me the little knoll on which my camp was pitched, named-Kampala, also the plantation at the foot of the shortest slope, which I greatly desired, as it was owned by a very rowdy set belonging to the Fransa (French) faction, who were continually creating a disturbance,” Wrote Capt Lugard in The rise of our African Empire.

“The little knoll” as he called it became the government station outside Entebbe where the protectorate government office was located. It accommodated him, the Swahili and Sudanese soldiers he had come with.

When Lt Col Sadler in 1902 announced the creation of a board to define the boundaries of Kampala, this heightened the tension between Mengo and the protectorate government. The decision to define the boundaries followed compensation of land owners west and south of Lugard’s original knoll, a move commissioner Sadler justified through his February 18, 1902, letter saying the land was acquired “to be used exclusively as a European quarter and all natives’ settlements were to be strictly prohibited”.

Moved from kibuga
Following the 1900 agreement, most of the developments of the township moved north-east and east away from the kibuga (city) mostly on the crown land. When the acting commissioner and consul general in 1899 signed a notice providing for certain sanitary rule for an area in the radius of three miles of Mengo, the Katikkiro then on behalf of Mengo wrote to Sir Harry Johnston in February 1900 saying, “Our great fear that this notice will give the Europeans in their place great power over our kibuga.”
Later the Katikkiro, Sir Apollo Kaggwa, protested the acquisition but the commissioner insisted, saying “The area in question has been lawfully obtained from the land owners as is needed for the government station.”

The following year, 1903, the Uganda township ordinance was declared and it gave the commissioner under section 2 powers to declare and define the limits of the township.
The Kampala administration realised that it did not have space below the fort for further development and trade. A decision was made to relocate the administration and open up a new township at Nakasero hill. On this hill there was a small fort manned by Punjabi soldiers, and it was this that gave way to the new government station.
According to Peter C. W. Gutkind, writing in his book The African administration of the Kibuga of Buganda, by 1905 almost all the administrative offices had moved from Kampala to Nakasero, the same year saw the opening of the first European store (shop) called the Uganda Company which was managed by W. E. Hoyle but it was later sold to an Indian in 1930.

Writing in the Uganda Journal of 1953 Hoyle says, “Nakasero Fort was also given the same name Kampala and what differentiated them was the former station was referred to as Old Kampala and the new place was referred to as Kampala. (Hence the name of the place as it’s known today Old Kampala).

As Kampala grew, so was its commercial importance, not only for the protectorate government, but to the locals as well, so much so that by 1907 it was commanding a sizeable number of migrant labour.

With this kind of growing importance, in 1906 its boundaries were redrawn to a three miles radius from Nakasero Fort. This included a large part of the kibuga. As expected, there was protestation from Mengo and Sir Hesketh Bell, the then governor, responded to Mengo’s prostration, saying “Due to the influx of labour into Kampala and the insanitary conditions in the kibuga, this was a measure which had to be taken.” However, in a space of four years the boarder was reduced to a radius of one mile from Nakasero Fort.

As the township went on expanding its influence through purchasing of land, in 1916 four Ganda land owners in the south-east of Kampala sold land to the township authority for the construction of police line, an Asian cemetery, and two oil storage tanks.

When Robert Caryndon established a central town planning board in 1920, it declared Namirembe, originally part of the kibuga, a township to the ragging of Mengo.
Following this move, there was a four-year break without the boundaries changing, until 1924 when three acres on the slopes of Kibuli, south-east of the government station, were purchased, as the commissioner said, on the grounds that “for some years we have been appalled at the complete disregard shown by the native government for the health of the citizens of Kampala. On the one hand the native government protests when land acquisition is suggested.”

A year later, the superintendent of Mulago hospital, Dr R. E. Barret sought the opinion of the provincial commissioner of what would be the consequences of acquiring a piece of kibuga land for the expansion of the hospital, saying, “Four Baganda land owners in the area had already been approached though three of them were not willing to sale.”

The provincial commissioner responded to the inquiry, saying: “If land were offered for sale government would weigh the political consequences of enlarging Kampala at the expense of the Buganda town.”

However, according to the 1930 town planning and development report by A. E. Mirams, areas like Nsambya, Namirembe, Mulago and Katwe were to be incorporated into the township authority, “the limits of jurisdiction should be extended to include certain portions of land at present outside the boundaries, and native land in close proximity to the town should have their development brought under some form of control”.
The provincial commissioner partly opposed the report’s recommendation, only supporting the incorporation of Mulago and Makerere areas into the township authority, proposing that “any further extension of the township should be to the east on the crown land.”

By May 1938, Mengo opposed the incorporation of Wandegeya, telling the provincial commissioner that they refuse to “approve of the intended township extensions” because “African landowners concerned would find it extremely difficult to comply with the township regulations”.

In august 1938, more than 200 acres of Ganda freehold at Makerere, Wandegeya and Mulago was incorporated into the Kampala township and gazetted in November of the same year according to legal notice 136 of 1938, but as expected, the move was met with strong opposition from Mengo government, which sent a resolution to the governor demanding a reversal of the incorporation.

But the governor refused to accept the terms given to him by the Mengo government.
They had included in the resolution that “the inclusion of mailo land is a threat to our authority and the reduction of our territory might precipitate a political crisis. Though Wandegeya was brought under the township authority, the Mengo government retained Wandegeya market from which it collected up to £400. The land owners in Wandegeya supported the township authority in letter to the Katikiro of Buganda, saying: “We the poor people should be allowed to earn from our land as we so wished.”

According to the Kampala township authority and central town planning board minutes of meetings held on February 13, 1945, May 1, 1945, and July 13, 1945, they all recommended that the town planning adviser, Dr E. May, undertake a study of the Kampala boundary area, with the aim of incorporating it into the township.

Becoming a municipality
After a comprehensive study of municipal administration in East Africa by Amar Maini (later a Sir) in mid-1940s, the government used his study to prepare a legislation which paved way for the establishment of Kampala as a municipality in 1946.
It took another two years for the new statues to be legally binding under legal notice 250 of 1948, this happened a year after the first sitting of the municipal council meeting under the chairmanship of Mr Maini.

Following its upgraded status, the then governor, Sir John Hall, directed the municipal council to include Katwe within Kampala and directed that a police station be constructed there as well. The reason for the construction of the police station within Katwe was because the governor believed that because the area had curved itself as an anti-government area, there was anticipation of serious law breaking and demonstration.

The inclusion of Katwe was not political or territorial in nature, but the pressure from Kampala traders who had been putting government on pressure to prevail over the unfair trade regime in the kibuga where traders were paying low taxes and where the sanitation rules were not observed.

However, the cost of bringing Katwe into Kampala became a sticking point when the town clerk presented the estimation to the council, saying: “It was to cost the municipal council between £2-3 million, including the outright purchase of land, compensation for loss of property and trade, and subsequent development conforming with municipal standards.”

He went on to say, “If it does it will become a very valuable area, it is situated on one of the main entries to the town and there is no reason to doubt that if the development in the area is properly controlled and directed, its inclusion in the municipality will ultimately be of benefit both to the municipality and the person residing in Katwe or owning land there.”

Barely a year later, after the formation of the municipality of Kampala, the colonial authorities decided to reconsider the incorporation of Katwe into the municipality. According to the chief secretary’s communication to the resident, dated July 20, 1950, in the Entebbe archives number S.M.P.C6031, it was not “...incorporation but to encourage the Buganda government to establish a more up to-date and efficient administration in the Kibuga…”

Legal Notice 35 of 1950 bestowed upon the chairman of the municipal council and his deputy the title of mayor and deputy mayor respectively. It was not until 1962 when the country was being granted independence that the municipality attained the status of a city, making it the capital city. Though popularly known as the city of seven hills, Kampala currently covers more than 12 hills.