ABSTRACT
Kampala City, the capital of Uganda, is situated near the centre of the northern shore of Lake Victoria and is surrounded by the area known as Buganda, the homeland of the Ganda people. 1 Buganda occupies the north-western section of the lake shore, and consequently Kampala lies on the eastern side of the region. The islands found in the north-western segment of the lake also belong to Buganda, and chief among them is the relatively large Sese group. Until the abolition of the kingdoms in Uganda in 1966, Buganda was a highly centralized kingdom, enjoying a size and influence greater than the others. The traditional political centre of this kingdom was at Kampala. The city is built on and among a series of rounded and flat-topped hills and the surrounding country is green and well-watered, every valley or depression containing a river or swamp. An inlet of Lake Victoria comes up to within a few miles of the city centre which has its own nearby harbour for lake steamers, Port Bell. There is a continuous rainfall throughout the year. A pumping-station at Gaba, five miles away, provides the city with filtered water, and electricity is generated fifty miles away at the Owen Falls Hydro-Electric Station. The Uganda Railway links Kampala with Nairobi, Kenya's capital, and Mombasa on the Kenya coast. On the west it stretches up to its terminus, Kasese, at the foot of the Ruwenzori Mountains.
