Traveling to Jinja
Jinja is only 80km from Kampala but allow at least 2 hours (currently there are roadworks that can delay even longer) by road, the slowest section is getting out of Kampala and past Mukono. From there (apart from a stream of slow heavy vehicles) the going is generally much easier and you pass through areas of sugarcane and tea plantations, Mabira Forest and down from Mbiko into the Nile Valley, crossing the River over the Owens Falls and Nalubale Dams. A new bridge is currently being built for completion by 2016.

 

Jinja is also a relatively easy day's drive from Nairobi in Kenya (580 km) and for a relaxing long-weekend away from the "big smoke" and fast pace of Kenya's capital or other cities in East Africa. Unless it is to visit friends or family why bother with the extra hours spent continuing on to Kampala when you can find great accommodation, activities, sight-seeing, rest and relaxation in and near-by this small city where the River Nile leaves Lake Victoria

By Air: The Jinja Airfield is now back in operation. Company's offering flights from Kajjansi Airfield near Kampala and from Entebbe Airport include Fly Uganda , and KE Aviation

Package Tours are available with many professional tour companies based in Kampala, Nairobi and Jinja. The variety of activities is extensive - for individuals and groups, corporate functions and team building activities, family trips, organisations and anyone looking to get time out from the hustle and bustle of the big cities like Kampala and Nairobi.

En-route from Kampala to Jinja:
Mabira Forest - where you will be able to see the primates, birds, and butterflies.
Ssezibwa Falls - a Buganda Heritage site.

A Brief History of Jinja and the start of the River Nile
13,000 years ago movements in the tectonic plates overlapping at the edge of the Western Rift Valley shifted the outlet for Lake Victoria (Nalubale) east to a point beside what is now known as Jinja – place of the rocks - Uganda’s second largest urban centre.

This exit point, the only major outlet for the lake, was partially dammed by a granite outcrop that came to be known as Rippon Falls, the start of the River Nile, while the source (defined as the furthermost point in the catchments area) is in Rwanda and the southernmost point in the catchments area is in Burundi.

The Luganda word for the stone is “ejjinja” and at the village overlooking the river there was a large stone from which the town got it's name. The stone can still be seen today.

The municipality covers an area of 11.5 square miles (28 Square Kilometres).

In the 1st millennia BCE Bantu-speaking peoples migrated from West Africa into Great Lakes region. The Bantu expansion introduced agriculture into those parts of East Africa either not reached previously by Nilo-Saharan farmers or too wet for millet, slowly intensifying farming and grazing over all suitable regions of East Africa, including the Nile valley. Until about 1900 Jinja was no more than a very small village situated near the place where canoes made the crossing of the Nile from Busoga into the neighbouring tribal kingdom of Buganda.

By 1890 the Napoleon Gulf as the bay through which the waters of the lake funnel into the Nile is called, was becoming of increasing importance as the main ferry on the route from Kampala to the Kenyan port of Kisumu, and in 1901 the Protectorate Government administrator in Busoga moved his headquarters from Iganga to Jinja.

Only 30 years earlier (1862), the the first European visitor, English soldier and explorer John Hanning Speke had arrived on the west bank opposite Jinja, confirming for the outside world that Lake Victoria was the START (not the SOURCE) of the White Nile.

For centuries, travelers had argued about where the River Nile began. Julius Caesar said that the one thing he most wanted to know about the world was 'where was the source of the Nile?'. In the 19th century it became an international obsession involving such legendary explorers as Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke, David Livingston and Henry Morton Stanley. In 1857-8 Burton and Speke traveled west from Zanzibar but did not reach Uganda. Once great friends and traveling companions they famously disagreed, Speke correctly believed that the Nile flowed out of Lake Victoria, while the more eloquent explorer, Richard Burton - translator of The Kama Sutra and author of The Perfumed Garden - believed the Nile flowed from Lake Tanganyika and that the Victoria Nyanza was seasonal.

In 1860 Speke left Zanzibar on a new expedition to prove his theories regarding the origins of the Nile and on 28st July 1862, was the first European (on record) to reach the outlet from Lake Victoria where the river starts. Twelve years later Henry Morton Stanley's epic circumnavigation of Lake Victoria in 1874 proved Speke had been correct.

Only the people who lived near the great lake knew that the Kiyira (River Nile) flowed from it. But although they daily witnessed the beginning of its journey, they did not know where it eventually led nor of its significance for mankind.

Speke described his “discovery” thus: “We were well rewarded, for “the stones” as the Waganda call the falls was by far the most interesting sight I had seen in Africa”. The falls that Speke saw, naming them the Ripon Falls after the President of the Royal Geographical Society in London, are now submerged.

In 1906 Jinja declared a township. Early plan shows grid pattern of streets, with a Collectorate building at head of pier, Busoga Square (as a “Union Jack-“ layout), Bell Avenue (then called Nile Avenue) separating the residential area from the commercial area to the north, and a Bazaar and market place at the intersection of Main Street and Bell Avenue. Population was 3,000 within a township of 8.3 square kilometers.

Beginning in 1910 and completed in 1912, a railway was constructed from Jinja to Namasagali as part of a route that connected Mombassa with Eastern Congo. The railway was primarily used to transport cotton from the areas around Lake Kyoga. The cotton was stored in Jinja and then shipped across to Kisumu and then by rail to the coast.

In 1913 Administrator F.M. Simpson prepared an expanded plan for Jinja, which sought to introduce green belts as a means of segregating races. However, the pre-existing grid structure had become firmly established and was gradually extended north and east to provide more residential plots. Simpson’s plan relocated the market to its present site in an attempt to segregate European from Asian and African trading.

In 1925 a proclamation was issued, enlarging the town boundaries to include a total area of 16 squar

e kilometres and by 1928 the railway from Mombassa was extended to Jinja. A road / rail bridge was built across the river and by 1931 Jinja was connected by rail with Kampala.

The District Administrator at that time prepared a new plan for Jinja. A E Miram was pessimistic as he saw little future for the growth of Jinja in light of the rapid expansion of Kampala. His plans, however, introduced the idea of a drive (i.e. Nile Drive) along the river and lake banks. The first full-time Conservancy Office and Sanitary Inspector in Uganda was appointed to Jinja. A total of 444 houses existed in Jinja at this time

However industrial development started and in 1937 when a thermal electricity plant was constructed in Jinja and first cotton mill constructed at Kirinya. Coronation Park was laid-out and considerable pressure was exerted for the upgrading and provision of “African” housing sites, resulting in the proposal for Mpumudde Estates.

The biggest effect on industry in Jinja began in 1949 with the start of construction of the Owens Falls Dam which was completed in 1954. The significance of this is indicated by the opening ceremony being attended by the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. The first industries in Jinja were based primarily on agricultural production, particularly cotton, sugar and timber.

After the construction of the dam Jinja got a tremendous advantage in the race for economic progress. The Government’s decision to gazette Jinja as Uganda’s industrial town and the enactment of a policy that provided for preferential electricity tariffs for the people of Jinja saw a rise in the number of industries.

Such conditions led to the birth of the textile manufacturing industry, a brewery in Njeru, and a plywood factory, which was the first in East Africa. Later, a copper smelter for the treatment of copper concentrates from Kasese in Western Uganda, a tobacco factory and the first steel rolling plant in East Africa, the East African Steel Corporation opened in 1963. In 1964, the Uganda Grain Milling Company opened up the Jinja Flour Mill, while in 1965, the Madhvani family opened up the second textile mill, Mulco Textiles.

On your way as you approach Mabira Forest you will come by some of the fast-food dispensers of roasted chicken and beef on sticks done the local way

On top of the lovely over 312 tree and plant species, the forest has over 300 species of birds and over 218 of butterflies. Never the less you shall find different types of monkey and other mammals in this Forest. Walking underneath this canopy of an African tropical Rainforest.

After get back into the vehicle and go for lunch at the Sunset Hotel -a lovely restaurant perched on a hill over the Nile serving very good with chicken breast stuffed with spinach a great delicacy. It has Ugandan, Chinese, Indian and Italian dishes.

After lunch you will take a short ride to the source of the Nile; a quiet beautiful place, filled with palm trees, fantastic tropical plants and as you walk down the steps toward the Nile you can smell of the flowers there.

As you stand on the Nile, you will hear the gurgling water; watch native fishermen throw their nets in the longest river in Africa- You will take a Boat Ride to the actual source of the Nile and beyond the lake where you will take great pictures for future memories.

You shall after drive to Jinja town once the industrial capital of Uganda but today a residential town filled with many old Indian styled structures in which many Indians lived during the pre-Amin area, some of whom have returned to reclaim their old properties. However Jinja is a multicultural town, dominated by native Basoga mixed up with Baganda, Banyankore Bagwere, Basamya as well as other eastern tribes making it a fusion of a true Uganda town good for any visitor to interact with. Jinja has many shops along the main road and also a place where to buy Ugandan crafts. Return to the Kampala in time for dinner at your hotel in the evening.

Luxury hotels in Jinja

Jinja Nile Resort is positioned on 30 acres of land overlooking the Nile River and features impressive landscapes filled with palm trees, tropical plants and lawns.

Luxury Safari Lodges in Jinja

Midrange hotels in Jinja

Gately on the Nile is a boutique bed & breakfast hotel that features tranquil and personalized accommodation and service for the mid-market Uganda Safari undertakers in Jinja.

Lake Victoria Serena Hotel is a luxury / upmarket accommodation establishment located on the shores of Lake Victoria and is noted to the recent to be added to the Serena Hotels portfolio in East Africa.

• Luxury Safari Lodges in Jinja
• Mid-range Lodges/Hotels in Jinja
• Budget Hotels in Jinja