KCCA street carnival in pictures

true

ALL PHOTOS/Nicholas Oneal

 By Steven Candia, Juliet Waiswa, Innocent Anguyo, Nigel Nassar and Patrick Ogwang

A festive mood gripped Kampala as the third Kampala City Carnival got underway, drawing thousands of enthusiastic fun lovers and curious city residents on Sunday.

Caravans of remodelled trucks mounted with blaring music and loaded with masked, brightly coloured and aptly dressed dancers, led by outriders on huge motorbikes and skaters as well as brass bands, snaked through the city, bringing it to a standstill. 

The procession began on Buganda Road, moved to Kampala, down Jinja Road and through Nile Avenue, heading towards the Kampala Sheraton Hotel.

The festival caused a major gridlock in town as many roads remained closed, to the chagrin of many motorists, who got caught up in the festivities. 

The Kampala Capital City Authority boss, Jennifer Musisi, rose to the occasion. Dressed in a bright orange dress, complete with a sombrero and riding in a black CLK 230 convertible Mercedes, she led the procession with mean looking bodyguards in black suits running alongside her car. 

Occasionally, she would stand up and wave to the crowds, drawing cheers. At one point, she was joined by her former boss at Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), Allen Kagina. 

Revenue generated from the festival, Musisi said, will be used to improve quality of healthcare at various health facilities run by the authority. The authority, she added, had racked in about sh1b from the event, exceeding the sh600m target from the festival. In her speech at the Rift Valley Railways gardens, the main venue of the festival, Musisi said the carnival was funded by various businesses in Kampala, and not tax-payers’ money, as was being purported by detractors. 

Several traders went home with bulging pockets after they mounted temporary shelters to sell their items, mainly foods and beverages. 

“Business is good. I wish this could go on for much longer,” Agnes Namusoke, a  businesswoman who had set up a fast-food stall on Nile Avenue, said as she danced to latino music blaring from a powerful music system on a truck parked across the road, with visibly elated young women on board. Many companies set up their promotion trucks at strategic junctions, though the major gigs were at the Railway Grounds, Sheraton Hotel Gardens and the National Theatre.

Events Warehouse did a remarkable job organising the festival, with six performance stages across the city.   

The Police backed by other security agencies threw a huge security ring around the city, not leaving anything to chance. Several snap-check points were erected in the city centre and all persons thoroughly frisked to avert any terror attacks. 

Stephen Tanui, the deputy Kampala Police chief, said up to 4,000 Police personnel had been deployed at the event. The Police said, save for a number of pick-pockets arrested, there were no major incidents reported.

true

true

true

true

true

true

true

true


 

Tweets about "#KampalaCityFestival "