Clan History | Buganda Maddiro

The Buganda Kingdom

The Kingdom of Buganda is situated in the Central region of the country known today as Uganda. It is right in the heart of Africa astride the Equator and in the North West shores of Lake Victoria and it’s also the source of the great river Nile. Buganda Kingdom is the home to the nation’s political and commercial capital city Kampala as well as the country’s main International airport Entebbe. Buganda has a population of 5,500,000 persons as per the census of 2002.

The Kingdom’s equatorial climate provides plentiful sunshine which is moderated by relatively high altitude. Since it’s near Lake Victoria, it’s mean annual temperature ranges from 16 degrees 25 degrees Celsius. Daytime temperature averages between 8 degrees to 10 degrees Celsius warmer than night temperatures. Rainfall is evenly distributed around the area and the mean annual rainfall often exceeds 2100 millimeters. The area is warm rather than hot and temperatures vary little throughout the year..

The King is the titular head of the Kingdom with both Administrative and Cultural duties.

It has a centralized system of governance where by the King is the head and has absolute powers. All the people in the Kingdom respect the King regardless of whether one is a Muganda or not. The office of the King is hereditary but he is always assisted by the following people to rule his subjects effectively; Kintu Kato became the first King to delegate some of his powers to other people. He gave some powers to his Prime Ministers (Bakatikiro) who were Kisolo Muwanga of the Otter (Nηonge) clan and Kakulukuku of the Pangoria (Lugave) clan. He even introduced the work of the royal sister since he got one called Kabonesa. Other powers were delegated to the Cabinet, The Parliament, County Chiefs Sub-county Chiefs, Parish Chiefs, the Batak b’obusolya, the Bafumu and the village chiefs. This made governance of the Kingdom very easy and it became so popular in that by the year 1750, it was the most organized Kingdoms in the region. The Kingdom was also divided into administrative units for easy administration. The biggest unit was the County. The counties were also divided into the sub-counties which were also divided into parishes. The parishes were also divided into sub-parishes and the smallest unit was the village.

Buganda Kingdom consists of the following counties, headed by the county chiefs:

Kyaddondo headed by the Kaggo.

Ssingo headed by the Mukwenda.

Kyaggwe headed by the Ssekiboobo.

Bulemeezi headed by the Kangawo.

Mawokota headed by the Kayima.

Ggomba headed by the Kitunzi.

Buddu headed by the Pokino.

Busiro headed by the Ssebwama.

Busujju headed by the Kasujju.

Butambala headed by the Katambala.

Buvuma headed by the Mbuubi.

Bugerere headed by the Mugerere.

Buweekula headed by the Luweekula.

Buluuli headed by the Kimbugwe.

Kooki headed by the Kamuswaga.

Kabula headed by the Lumaama.

Ssese headed by the Kweba.

Mawogola headed by the Muteesa.