Luzira is a suburb 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 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 ...

. It is best known for the country's main prison, Luzira Maximum Security Prison, which has seen significant redevelopment thanks to the work of African Prisons Project, a charity based in the UK and Kampala.

Location

Luzira lies in

Nakawa Division Nakawa Division is one of the five administrative divisions of the city of Kampala, the capital and largest city of Uganda. The town of Nakawa is the site of the division headquarters. Location Nakawa Division lies in the eastern part of the city ...

, one of the five administrative divisions of Kampala. It is located approximately , by road, southeast of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

of Kampala. It is bordered by Butabika to the north, Mutungo and Kitintale to the northwest, Mpanga to the west, Port Bell to the south and an inlet of

Lake Victoria Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropics, tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface are ...

to the east. The coordinates of Luzira are:0°18'06.0"N, 32°38'42.0"E (Latitude:0.301667; Longitude:32.644999).

Overview

Luzira is the name that the indigenous

Baganda The Baganda (endonym: ''Baganda''; singular ''Muganda''), are a Bantu ethnic group native to Buganda, a subnational kingdom within Uganda. Traditionally composed of 52 clans (although since a 1993 survey, only 46 are officially recognised), th ...

use to refer to the general neighborhood. Port Bell is the area where the landing pier is situated, at the tip of the peninsular into Lake Victoria, in the most southern part of the general Luzira neighborhood. Mpanga is the location of Uganda's maximum security prison, located in the western part of the general Luzira neighborhood. The central part of Luzira is mainly an industrial park, where most of the factories are located. The eastern part of Luzira township is mainly a middle-class residential neighborhood. Prehistoric artifacts dating back to around 1000 AD, have been uncovered at the site where the maximum security prison is located. This includes the famous Luzira Head, which is currently housed in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

Luzira Maximum Security Prison

The prison, the largest penal institution in Uganda was designed with capacity of 1,700 inmates, but often houses close to 8,000. On 27 August 2014, the day of the 2014 national population census, the prison housed 6,336 people; 3, 373 were in the Luzira Upper Prison, 1,495 were in Murchison Bay Prison, and Kampala Remand Prison had 1, 040 inmates. The Luzira Women's Prison had 400 inmates and 28 children.

Points of interest

The following points of interest are found inside or near Luzira: * Luzira Maximum Security Prison, designed to house 1,700 but with population above 7,700 in April 2016, including the country's only death row. * Uganda Breweries Limited, a division of East African Breweries. * Quality Chemical Industries Limited, an

antiretroviral drug The management of HIV/AIDS normally includes the use of multiple Antiviral drug, antiretroviral drugs as a strategy to control HIV/AIDS, HIV infection. There are several classes of antiretroviral agents that act on different stages of the HIV li ...

factory. * Port Bell, which is located on the shores of

Lake Nalubaale Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface area after L ...

, handles both passenger and cargo traffic destined for

Kisumu Kisumu ( ) is the third-largest city in Kenya located in the Lake Victoria area in the former Nyanza Province. It is the second-largest city after Kampala in the Lake Victoria Basin. The city has a population of slightly over 600,000. The ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

Mwanza Mwanza City, also known as Rock City to the residents, is a port city and capital of Mwanza Region on the southern shore of Lake Victoria in north-western Tanzania. With an urban population of 1,104,521 and a population of 3,699,872 in the region ...

and

Musoma Musoma is a city in the east shore of Lake Victoria of Tanzania. It is the capital of Mara Region, one of the administrative Regions of Tanzania. It also serves as the administrative centre of Musoma Rural District and Musoma Urban District. L ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

. * Butabika National Referral Hospital, Uganda's national psychiatric referral hospital with a bed capacity of 900. Located in the adjacent community called Butabika.

References

External links