KABAKA PALACE

The palace sits atop Lubiri Hill, which overlooks Kabaka's Lake, an artificial body of water dating from 1888 (this watery expanse was originally intended to be connected to Lake Victoria by a canal), and the Royal Mile (Kabaka Anjagala Road) which leads to the Buganda Parliament (Bulange House). The site is best visited in the company of a competent (English-speaking) guide from the Buganda Heritage and Tourism Board. The palace in the strict sense of the word - which has hardly been inhabited by the Buganda kings since Mutesa II was ousted by Milton Obote in 1966 - cannot be visited for the time being. It is rather for the infamous prison built by Idi Amin Dada that one goes to the place. A concrete tunnel, dark and gloomy, of several tens of meters was indeed dug in the hillside during the reign of the bloodthirsty president. Prisoners were crammed into the raised side cells (on whose walls foot and handprints are still visible) of this concrete tunnel. To prevent escape, the guards poured water into the tunnel and then electrified it... About 19,000 people died in this sinister prison under Idi Amin Dada (the bodies were then thrown into Kabaka's Lake or into Lake Victoria) and more than 6,000 after Milton Obote's return to power in the early 1980s... Also noteworthy is the carcass of Mutesa II's Rolls-Royce, destroyed during the military assault of 1966.