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1995

Uganda- Cairo to Capetown

Bec
2004-09-20 13:17:43

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Busia
The bus ride from Nairobi to Kampala took all day from 7 AM to 7 PM. We went through immigration and customs formalities in this round tin shack at the Ugandan border town of Busia.

Just outside of Busia these baboons seemed curious about visitors to their land but they did not ask to check our passports.

Kampala
Parliament Buildings in Kampala.

Matt, Scott and I arrived in Kampala in the evening and took a matatu (mini bus) to the Backpacker's Hostel on Natete road in a western suburb. The next day, they left for Fort Portal and the Ruwenzori mountains on the Zaire border and I went exploring Kampala.

Central Kampala which had been badly damaged by street fighting and looting during Adi Amin's fall before the Tanzanian army in 1979 and during the MRA takeover from Okello in 1986 had been nicely rebuilt when I visited in 1995. This city which had seen so much violence is now a modern thriving busy place showing the result of good government by the Museveni regime.

Kampala has risen out of its ashes but there are very few Asians left in Uganda now out of the 70 000 that were given 90 days to leave the country by Idi Amin Dada in 1972. This great Hindu temple bears witness to the prosperity that the industrious Indian community had achieved before their businesses were confiscated by Idi Amin and his cronies (an estimated 1000 million dollars worth).

The economy has improved steadily under Museveni. Its average GDP rate of growth of 6 % from 1985 to 1995 is one of the highest in Africa. This view of a small part of the sprawling Nakasero Market reflects this booming economy.

Next to the market are a bus station and a matatu station. Scheduled buses do the longer distances and these matatu (mini vans) go everywhere on set routes leaving only when full.

I took a bus from Kampala to Kabale close to the ...