Welcome to Kampala City

You will pardon the superlative description, but gladly that’s the truth as we know it presented modestly. There are few cities in the world that boast of a location better than Uganda’s capital city Kampala. Originally located atop seven undulating hills that have steadily grown threefold and counting to now 21, by the shores of the world’s second largest fresh water body, Lake Victoria and just a few tens of kilometres from the equator (centre of the earth), few places in the world can compare to this beautiful location.

This week, Kampala plays host to delegations from hundreds of nation states here for the 19th Non Allied Movement (NAM) summit. I will start with the basic manners and courteous decency Ugandans are famed for – Welcome to Uganda, welcome to Kampala – the green city in the sun! It’s not just a warm welcome we offer by words, the city is famous for its warm welcome literally where temperatures even on our coldest nights never fall below 150C, while our hottest days have never registered anything up pf 30 degrees!

Kampala became Uganda’s capital city a few months before the attainment of independence in 1962; although from the 19th Century when much of the available written historic literature about this beautiful country is written, the location was first the royal court of the area reigning monarch. It was a terminus for Asian traders seeking market into Africa’s hinterland and was the centre of what eventually became Uganda after the reigning monarch at the time invited missionaries through two explorers that pitched camp, enjoying the marvel of the civilisation they had bumped into –in the middle of nowhere. The rest, as it’s said, is history; following the missionaries were the colonial administrators and here we are, with a bustling metropolis that’s home to over five million inhabitants by day, drawn from all ethnic composition of this country, visitors and expatriates.

Never mind the background of the inhabitants of this city, one trait weaves through all of us like a thread-friendly courtesy served with a smile. It must be in the rich array of food we eat!

Talking about food, there are few cities on earth where you will eat a fresh pineapple that was only in the garden the previous day or grilled evening beef steak from a cow that was happily grazing in its field some 300km away that very morning! Our foods are served fresh-everywhere from upscale restaurants to the street where street food of all types and names-some go as exotic as Rolex is prepared and served!

For our guests deliberating away in that convention centre by the lakeside in Munyonyo, aside being besides Lake Victoria; you are just a single digit kilometres from where the first missionaries docked when they arrived here.

Talking missionaries, you could be seated along the path one of the famed 22 Uganda martyrs was taken before their brutal execution to deserve canonisation and rewrite the global faith books. If that’s not your creed, the city is host to one of only two Hindu temples of its type in Africa and the same is said of the Bahai temple.

Let me end my welcome with a hint of how we know best to end our days in Kampala – it doesn’t matter which day of the week it is. After sunset, we take our rightful position as the ‘party capital’ of the region – all this enjoyment, especially in the suburbs neighbouring Munyonyo, usually goes on until sunrise.

Welcome once again, enjoy your stay in Kampala and return – for business or pleasure. There is more on offer than you will enjoy in just this week!

The author is the spokesperson of Kampala Capital City Authority