Kakiri is a town located in

Wakiso District Wakiso District is a Districts of Uganda, district in the Central Region, Uganda, Central Region of Uganda that partly encircles Kampala, Uganda's capital city. The town of Wakiso is the site of the district headquarters. Kira Town, Kira, the count ...

in the Central Region of

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

. Kakiri is the site of the headquarters of the first division of the

Uganda People's Defence Force The Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF), previously known as the National Resistance Army, is the armed forces of Uganda. From 2007 to 2011, the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated the UPDF had a total strength of 40,000–4 ...

(UPDF). It is also the hometown of Gilbert Bukenya, who represents the town and the surrounding constituency of Busiro North in the

parliament of Uganda The Parliament of Uganda is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of Uganda. One of its primary functions is to pass laws that support effective governance in the country. Government ministers are required to answer to the people's represe ...

and is a former vice president of Uganda.

History

Kakiri was affected by the

Ugandan Bush War The Ugandan Bush War was a civil war fought in Uganda by the official Ugandan government and its armed wing, the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA), against a number of rebel groups, most importantly the National Resistance Army (NRA), from 19 ...

. On 5 April 1981, the town was the site of a

Popular Resistance Army The Popular Resistance Army, also known as Movement for the Struggle for Political Rights, was a rebel group organized around late 1980 and early 1981 by Yoweri Museveni to fight against the regime of Milton Obote in Uganda. It was a predecessor of ...

raid targeting a local Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) camp. In April 1982, UNLA soldiers murdered and buried 55 civilians at Kakiri, accusing them of superstitious activities. One month later, another 20 people were murdered by UNLA troops near the town; the soldiers dumped their corpses along the Kampala–Hoima Road. In late 1982, a

National Resistance Army The National Resistance Army (NRA) was a guerilla army and the military wing of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) that fought in the Ugandan Bush War against the government of Milton Obote, and later the government of Tito Okello. NRA wa ...

contingent under Salim Saleh raided Kakiri.

Location

Kakiri is approximately , by road, northwest of

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,875,834 (2024) and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kampala, Kawempe Division, Kawempe, Makindy ...

, the capital of Uganda. The town is located on the Kampala–Hoima Road, connecting Kampala to Uganda's oil capital of Hoima". The coordinates of Kakiri are 0°25'12.0"N, 32°23'24.0"E (Latitude:0.4200; Longitude:32.3900).

Population

In 2002, the national population census put the population of the town at about 4,200. In 2010, the

Uganda Bureau of Statistics The Uganda Bureau of Statistics ("UBOS") is an agency of the Ugandan government. Formed by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics Act, 1998, the agency is mandated to "coordinate, monitor and supervise Uganda's National Statistical System". Locatio ...

(UBOS) estimated the population at 5,800. In 2011, UBOS estimated the population at 6,000 inhabitants. In 2014, the national population census put the population at 19,449. In 2015, UBOS estimated the population of Kakiri at 20,300. In 2020, the population agency estimated the mid-year population of the town at 28,100. Of these, 14,400 (51.2 percent) were females and 13,700 (48.8 percent were females). UBOS calculated that the population growth rate between 2015 and 2020, averaged 6.7 percent annually.

Points of interest

The following additional points of interest lie in Kakiri or near the town limits: (a) The offices of Kakiri Town Council (b) a branch of

PostBank Uganda PostBank Uganda is a commercial bank in Uganda, licensed and supervised by the Bank of Uganda, the country's central bank and national banking regulator. The bank received her tier-1 banking license in December 2021. Before that, PostBank Ug ...

, a government-owned financial institution (c) Kakiri Central Market and (d) Kampala–Hoima Road passes through the middle of town in a northwest/southeast direction. The headquarters of the First División of the UPDF are located about southeast of downtown Kakiri.

Photos

Photo of the compound of the SOS Primary School in Kakiri

References

Works cited

* * *

External links

Power Outage Disrupts Water Supply In Kakiri
{{coord, 00, 25, 12, N, 32, 23, 24, E, region:UG_type:city, display=title Populated places in Central Region, Uganda Wakiso District