Kyengera The place to live luxuriously at low cost
Jan 26, 2007
Talk of Kyengera and whoever has travelled to west-ern Uganda will think of the mouth-watering muchomo and gonja sold along the highway.
By Titus Serunjogi
Talk of Kyengera and whoever has travelled to west-ern Uganda will think of the mouth-watering muchomo and gonja sold along the highway.
However, Kyengera has grown to become one of the most sought-after residential areas for people working within Kampala’s central business district. And there is also a trend for fairly well-off Naguru and Ntinda residents building rental quarters in Kyengera.
Swerve off the busy Masaka highway and you will be sure to come across several low-cost, but plush new residences. These do not belong to only teachers from the neighbouring schools, but also to Kikuubo businessmen, political bigwigs, people on kyeyo and Mulago hospital doctors, among other people.
True, you cannot expect to find a sprawl of tile-roofed mansions here as in Muyenga. Most of the new residences have corrugated iron roofs that resemble tiles.
But they are not lacking at all in other up-scale decorations like perimeter walls embellished in rock or half-bricks, flower gardens and well-kempt lawns, verandas with floor tiles and pillars.
Some few have satellite dishes in the compounds. It is here where you will notice middle-class developers doing their best to keep up with luxury at a low cost.
A 40x60 feet plot goes for sh10m in Kyengera. That is thrice less the cost of plots in Kiwatule. But full houses up for rent are quite rare here. However, one can hook a two-room, self-contained apartment for sh100,000. Single room quarters (mizigo) go for as little as sh20,000.
Even with the sprawling average earning population, you would not find a slum in Kyengera as is the case in Ndeeba.
Drainage is excellent and although the roads to the newer residences are all marram, there is no case of flooding or boggling mud banks in the middle of the road.
One sure ideal that Kyengera is, it is a 24-hour shopping scene. The retail traders in the area will keep businesses open till late in the night.
Besides muchomo usually bought by long-distance travellers, there are several general retail shops, groceries, boutiques, electronic shops, fuel stations, salons, supermarkets and just about everything else.
Security is nothing to worry about by the roadside. But Sheik Mohammed Lubowa, the Uganda Muslim Supreme council co-coordinator in Mpigi and Wakiso, who is also a resident, says: “These days, we are having a lot of idle youths coming in from the countryside who might jeopardise our security.â€
Transport from Kampala to Kyengera is sh1,000, a price many of the residents working in the city would rather pay than live in the more expensive or cramped quarters in the city.
There is always a taxi travelling from Kyengera to town at any time of the day or night. However, residents have also learned to tolerate the traffic jam that makes going through Nateete, especially at rush hours, a problem.
There are lots of overnight bars, karaoke pubs and discotheques by the highway. So, residents do not have to travel to the city centre for a night out. But that aside, the mainly residential area offers lots of green space, peace and quiet and room for play for children.
The country’s top secondary schools; King’s College Budo and Trinity College Nabbingo are all in the vicinity
There are a number of clinics and nursing homes in the area, where residents can run for medical help.
The downside is that of late, there have been reports of prostitution on the highway. The night-life by the highway makes this business especially lucrative. And already, many girls are flocking into Kyengera from the countryside to tap in on the illicit trade.
Talk of Kyengera and whoever has travelled to west-ern Uganda will think of the mouth-watering muchomo and gonja sold along the highway.
However, Kyengera has grown to become one of the most sought-after residential areas for people working within Kampala’s central business district. And there is also a trend for fairly well-off Naguru and Ntinda residents building rental quarters in Kyengera.
Swerve off the busy Masaka highway and you will be sure to come across several low-cost, but plush new residences. These do not belong to only teachers from the neighbouring schools, but also to Kikuubo businessmen, political bigwigs, people on kyeyo and Mulago hospital doctors, among other people.
True, you cannot expect to find a sprawl of tile-roofed mansions here as in Muyenga. Most of the new residences have corrugated iron roofs that resemble tiles.
But they are not lacking at all in other up-scale decorations like perimeter walls embellished in rock or half-bricks, flower gardens and well-kempt lawns, verandas with floor tiles and pillars.
Some few have satellite dishes in the compounds. It is here where you will notice middle-class developers doing their best to keep up with luxury at a low cost.
A 40x60 feet plot goes for sh10m in Kyengera. That is thrice less the cost of plots in Kiwatule. But full houses up for rent are quite rare here. However, one can hook a two-room, self-contained apartment for sh100,000. Single room quarters (mizigo) go for as little as sh20,000.
Even with the sprawling average earning population, you would not find a slum in Kyengera as is the case in Ndeeba.
Drainage is excellent and although the roads to the newer residences are all marram, there is no case of flooding or boggling mud banks in the middle of the road.
One sure ideal that Kyengera is, it is a 24-hour shopping scene. The retail traders in the area will keep businesses open till late in the night.
Besides muchomo usually bought by long-distance travellers, there are several general retail shops, groceries, boutiques, electronic shops, fuel stations, salons, supermarkets and just about everything else.
Security is nothing to worry about by the roadside. But Sheik Mohammed Lubowa, the Uganda Muslim Supreme council co-coordinator in Mpigi and Wakiso, who is also a resident, says: “These days, we are having a lot of idle youths coming in from the countryside who might jeopardise our security.â€
Transport from Kampala to Kyengera is sh1,000, a price many of the residents working in the city would rather pay than live in the more expensive or cramped quarters in the city.
There is always a taxi travelling from Kyengera to town at any time of the day or night. However, residents have also learned to tolerate the traffic jam that makes going through Nateete, especially at rush hours, a problem.
There are lots of overnight bars, karaoke pubs and discotheques by the highway. So, residents do not have to travel to the city centre for a night out. But that aside, the mainly residential area offers lots of green space, peace and quiet and room for play for children.
The country’s top secondary schools; King’s College Budo and Trinity College Nabbingo are all in the vicinity
There are a number of clinics and nursing homes in the area, where residents can run for medical help.
The downside is that of late, there have been reports of prostitution on the highway. The night-life by the highway makes this business especially lucrative. And already, many girls are flocking into Kyengera from the countryside to tap in on the illicit trade.