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Mengo Palace - Kabaka's Lake |
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Thursday, 17 July 2008 16:54 |
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KABAKA’S LAKE
It is a man made lake that was created in 1887 on the orders of Ssekabaka Mwanga. The King wanted a channel wide enough for him to travel to Munyonyo where he had created another palace at Mulungu hill near Lake Victoria using boats. The lake was to stretch from Mengo to Munyonyo and it was to cover areas of Ndeeba valley, the valley between Kibuye and Najjanankumbi, the valley between Luwafu Kyamula on one side and Masaja on the other side up to Munyonyo.
The Kabaka named Musoke as the foreman to do this job but Musoke failed to perform well and was replaced by Kaggwa Ndikumukulaga. Kabaka’s subjects were mobilized county by county from all parts of the Kingdom in order for the work to be complete.
However, after eleven (11) months of digging on the 2nd August 1888, religious wars broke out in the Kingdom and the work stopped before the lake could stretch to Munyonyo. The King ordered for the killing of all those people who had chosen to join any religious faction that included Muslims, Anglican and Roman Catholic martyrs. He ordered that they be transported to Nsazi Island where they were to starve to death. When the people discovered the plan to kill them, they disobeyed the Kabaka, refused to board the boats to Nsazi Island and decided to fight and over through him from the throne. King Mwanga was defeated and he ran to Lake Bukumbi in Tanganyika. From then, work on the Kabaka’s Lake stopped up to date covering only the valley between Lubaga and Mengo hills.
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