Jinja1

Jinja town is one of the exciting towns in Uganda. The number of attractions is not in short supply in this mystical town.  It is located in Eastern Uganda, only about two hour’s drive from Kampala and about 2 hours 45 minutes from Entebbe International Airport.  There is a lot to learn about Jinja. It was once up on a time Uganda’s most industrialized town during its hay days because it is strategic located as the source of the River Nile along which was the only power generating facility then, the Owen Falls Dam (now Nalubale Dam) and its proximity to Kenya.  The town was also strategic because it has an abundant supply of water, as it also Lake Victoria —but perhaps more because the government of that time had a deliberate policy to bookend  it an industrial hub of the country. The economy of Jinja was upheld my Asians because they possessed a superior entrepreneurial and business acumen than the Ugandan counterparts.

In 1972, unprincipled politics interrupted the industrialization trajectory of the town. President Idi Amin, one of the most brutish dictators to ever exist on the milk way, did something unconscionable;  he expelled all Asians in what he called an “economic war” to take back the economy from foreigners. As it turned out, disguised xenophobic action against the Asians was a misstep that marked the beginning of the end of Uganda’s economic progress and the collapse Jinja industrial base—because when the Asians left, Ugandans lack the wherewithal to manage factories and production and by that fact ran them down.