Walking around Parliament Avenue

I wanted to be able to show you a bit more about Kampala... and how Kampala looks like and feels! So in the first of these, I am showing you some photos of when I took a walk around Parliament Avenue... I was doing some errands in town and I made the most to take some photos of the Uganda Parliament building and a couple of other things.

Let me introduce a couple of facts about the city and the Parliament.

Kampala's population is around 1.5 million according to my book (my source is the Lonely Planet guide to East Africa, edition of June 2009). Like Rome, Kampala is known as the city of the seven hills, although it has since engulfed many more, and that rolling topography is where the comparison starts and ends!



Apparently, according to the same book still, the Parliament House is open to visitors (I didn't check it that time). If you want to see the government in action you need to make a written request to the public relations department which should decide by the next business day if you are worthy of acceptance.



And on this note a bit of history regarding Uganda's independence: 'Unlike Kenya, and to a lesser extent Tanzania, Uganda never experienced a large influx of European colonisers and the associated expropriation of land. Instead, farmers were encouraged to grow cash crops for export through their own cooperative groups. Consequently, Ugandan nationalist organisations sprouted much later than those in neighbouring countries, and when they did, it happened along tribal lines. So exclusive were some of these, that when Ugandan independence was discussed, the Baganda people considered secession.

By the mid 1950s, however, a Lango school tracher, Dr Milton Obote, managed to put together a loose coalition headed by the Uganda People's Congress (UPC) which lead Uganda to independence in 1962 on the promise that the Buganda kingdom would have autonomy. The kabaka (king), Edward Mutesa II, became the President of the new nation and Milton Obote became Uganda's first Prime Minister.

And from that moment, the story goes like this: it soon became obvious that Obote was not keen to share power. In 1966 he moved arresting several cabinet ministers and ordering his army chief of staff, Idi Amin, to storm the kabaka's palace, who exiled to London. Following the coup, Obote self-proclaimed himself President and the Buganda monarchy was abolished along with other kingdoms.

Idi Amin's star was on the rise, and he eventually ended up staging a coup himself in January 1971. But we will leave that story for another time.

By the way, check this out, I loved to find this, I couldn't believe that there was a Parliament Souvenir Shop! Interesting...

And coming back to the present, on the other side of Parliament Avenue you can find one of the nicest cafes in town: Cafe Pap, there is one cafe here and another one in Garden City Shopping Mall, but this one is the original. According to my book 'this stylish cafe may be the place to meet some movers and shakers. The house coffee comes from the slopes of Mount Elgon, and many will tell you it is the best in town. There is also a full menu with breakfasts, sandwiches, salads, fajitas and pastas'.



I have to agree on the point around the coffee... It is one of the best in town, in fact, there is only 3 places where, if you are a coffee lover, you will like the coffee in Kampala: Cafe Pap, Cafe Javas and Serena Hotel... humm, not too much point to try it outside these places.

As many tourists these days, I had seen before the Cafe Pap in Garden City than this one, so it was nice to see this one as it is definitely picturesque, and it is definitely one of the places to meet people (leisure and business) in town.