The Kampala Serena Hotel is a hotel in

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 and largest city 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 ...

. The hotel is rated 5-stars by the Uganda Tourism Board.

Location

The hotel is on Kintu Road on Nakasero Hill, in the centre of Kampala. The hotel is nestled among of lawns and gardens. The hotel is adjacent to the Kampala Sheraton Hotel and the Imperial Royale Hotel. It is in the

Kampala Central Division Kampala Central Division is one of the five divisions that make up Kampala, the capital of Uganda. The city's five divisions are: (a) Kampala Central Division (b) Kawempe Division (c) Lubaga Division (d) Makindye Division and (e) Nakawa Divisi ...

, one of the five administrative divisions of the city. The coordinates of the Kampala Serena Hotel are 0°19'08.0"N, 32°35'11.0"E (Latitude:0.318889; Longitude:32.586400).

Overview

The hotel opened on 31 July 2006, after eighteen months of renovations and refurbishment at a cost of US$30.5 million. The hotel is part of the Serena Hotels Group. It has 152 rooms, including thirteen suites, one of which is a presidential suite. During the

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2007 The 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was the 20th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations. It was held in Kampala, Uganda, between 23 November and 25 November 2007, and was hosted by President Yoweri Museven ...

in Kampala, the hotel hosted

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

of the United Kingdom for four nights. The hotel has its own

helipad A helipad is the landing area of a heliport, in use by helicopters, powered lift, and vertical lift aircraft to land on surface. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fa ...

for easy transport between the hotel and

Entebbe International Airport Entebbe International Airport is the only international airport in Uganda. It is located about southwest of the town of Entebbe, on the northern shores of Lake Victoria. This is approximately by road south-west of the central business distric ...

. Adjacent to the hotel is the Kampala Serena International Conference Center with a seating capacity of 1,500 and multilingual translation facilities of up to nine languages simultaneously. In 2016, the hotel was expanded, with the addition of 32 bedrooms, and the improvement of food, beverage, and meeting facilities.

History

International Conference Center at Serena Hotel

International Conference Center at Serena Hotel was constructed in 1975 in order to host 13th Summit of the

Organization of African Unity The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; , OUA) was an African intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 33 signatory governments. Some of the key aims of the OAU were to encourage political and ec ...

(OAU). The hexagonal building was completed by Energoprojekt holding from Non-Aligned

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

. The venue was subsequently used by

Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 30 May 192816 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 until Uganda–Tanzania War, his overthrow in 1979. He ruled as a Military dictatorship, ...

regime for president's personal activities and according to some sources for torture of Amin's opponents and enemies.

Ownership

The Kampala Serena Hotel is owned by a

consortium A consortium () is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a ...

that includes three corporate entities; (a) Tourism Promotion Services, a division of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, (b) the Uganda National Social Security Fund, (c) Proparco, a French property investment company. The table below summarizes the shareholding in the business.

Renovations

In March 2016, the hotel began renovations that will "create 36 new residential rooms, a new state-of-the-art suite, partial refurbishment and alterations of the meeting rooms and create more executive lounges and meeting rooms". The US$8 million expansion is partly funded by PROPARCO of France and is expected to last 12 months.

References

External links

The Kampala Serena Hotel Homepage

* ttp://www.worldtravelawards.com/award-ugandas-leading-hotel-2015 Uganda's Leading Hotel 2015 {{coord, 00, 19, 08, N, 32, 35, 11, E, display=title Hotels in Kampala Kampala Central Division Hotel buildings completed in 1975 Hotels established in 2006 Yugoslav architecture beyond former Yugoslavia