Katikkiro inducts team for Kabaka's Lake

By Moses Mulondo

THE Katikkiro of Buganda Charles Peter Mayiga has inaugurated a committee which the Kabaka of Buganda Ronald Muwenda Mutebi has appointed to work on a development plan for the Kabaka’s lake in Ndeeba.

The committee, which Mayiga gave a deadline of April 7, 2015 to complete its work, is headed by a Makerere University architecture lecturer Dr. Kenneth Ssemogerere. 

Other members of the committee include Buganda local governments minister  Jolly Lutaaya, KCCA tourism officer Ronald Mubiru, KCCA landscape planner Isaac Mugumbule, Buganda Land Board officer Bashiri Kizito, Lubiri administrator Robert Ssewava, businessman William Kajoba, and businesswoman Josephine Namatovu.

Emphasizing that every program in his tenure is time bound, the Katikkiro appealed to the committee not to disappoint the Kabaka by doing the work diligently and finish it within the stipulated time.

“We want you to consult and generate ideas of how we can develop the Kabaka’s lake. I hear different ideas people are proposing like building a hotel around the lake, building a perimeter wall, turning into a major tourism site. Consider all the ideas and come up with a report,” Mayiga told the committee members.

Noting that the Kabaka’s lake is one of the few monumental manmade lakes in Africa, Mayiga stressed the need to preserve it and safeguard it from being contaminated.

“If we don’t act early to preserve the Kabaka’s lake which is a major heritage site for Uganda, it can easily get extinct in the next 20 to 30 years,” Mayiga argued.

The Katikkiro expressed disappointment that the people around have turned the lake into a dumping ground for solid waste and toxic substances.   

Located between Ring road and Nabunya road in Ndeeba, the Lake is bordered by unplanned human activities like garages and washing bays which have encroached on the swamp that used to act as a water catchment area.

The second deputy premier and minister for culture and tourism Mohamed Ssekimpi said whereas some of the people who built around the lake were given titles by Buganda Land Board, a big number of people illegally encroached on the land.

Ssekimpi said the Lake was dug on the orders of Kabaka Mwanga II between 1886 and 1887 and had intended to expand it from Ndeeba to Kibuye and connect it to Lake Victoria through Munyonyo.  

“Mwanga II had directed all kingdom subjects to participate in digging up the lake. If he had not been interrupted by the colonialists, that lake could have turned out to be one of the biggest wonders in the world,” Mayiga explained.

He said he anticipates work for redeveloping the lake to commence in June 2015 after the committee has submitted its development plan.

The katikkiro revealed that Buganda kingdom would partner with KCCA and the central government relevant ministries in developing and preserving the Kabaka’s lake as special tourism heritage.