Katereke Prison Ditch The historical Torture Prison in Buganda Kampala due to the greedy king.

Katereke Prison Ditch, The Torture Ditch of the Past Buganda Leaders. Imagine, a prison in a ditch! Two harsh words in a sentence and more so next to each other, How fierce would that be?

Katereke Prison Ditch one of the famous historical site of cultural significance in Buganda Kingdom Kampala Uganda; because it tells the pain some of the princes and princess of Buganda Kingdom suffered in the hands of Kabaka Kalema who believed they could take over his crown.

This wonderful site is found along Masaka road; just 30 minutes’ drive to Nsangi Trading Centre from Kampala City and besides it being a cultural significance, it is a perfect birding destination with couple of interesting bird species.

The first person who i once told about this story told me she would really want to see where a place with a story you are yet to read was, and you too could love coming to see this place.

Located into the outskirts of kampala, in a place called Nsangi (Masaka road). A 2 kilometres drive from nsangi town leads you to this historical place “Katereke Prison Ditch”.

The Katereke Prison Ditch historical Facts

Later in the 1880’s Buganda kingdom had a king called kalema, he who succeeded kabaka “king” kiweewa, made orders and a ditch about 10 meters deep and over 70 metres wide was dug.

After succeeding kabaka “king” kiweewa, kalema started feeling different insecurities over the throne he himself was owning. He mostly felt insecure with his brothers and sisters and also other people who he thought would one day want to overthrow him.

It is said that over 30 of his brothers and sisters were all killed into this very ditch because kabaka “king” never wanted any kind of resistance from anyone and also because he wanted to still keep the throne onto him.

People thrown to this ditch would be burnt, beaten and also being starved to death. When the king had decided to imprison all the princes (his brothers) and princesses (His sisters) that were in the palace the present Mengo.

The Cause of Bamweyana ‘s Death

So he ordered that they would all be led to the ditch prison but, one of the brothers (Bamweyana) tired to resist and and in the process he was able to escape and ran away.

But for whoever tried to escape either in the ditch or in the prison, they would be re arrested and brought back to the prison and so it was the same to Bamweyana. An order for his death reached the prison leaders and he was killed.

Since bamweyana was loved by most of his of brothers and sisters and the other people that stayed in the palace got so bitter when they learn about the death of bamweyana.

In attempts of expressing anger, the king “kabaka kalema” placed an order for burning all prisoners that were into the prisons including his own brothers and sisters.

Any clan in the buganda kingdom has a single person who is said to be liked so much by the gods. And could be the same case with bamweyana.

In a place where he was killed, a big tree grew its way up and bamweyana’s spirit would possess anybody who would be at the tree so as to pass onto information to the people and the spirit would talk through that person.

Interchanging several voices, the spirit would tell people about the existence for the place and so many other things concerning them.

For all the greed for staying into power, Kabaka Kalema was accidentally killed by this own grandson as they were on a hunting raid.

You could be asking yourself! – WHAT REALLY BRINGS PEOPLE (Tourists) TO THIS PLACE?

They want to see the place in which a Prince was killed and in the very place where he was killed germinated a tree in which the spirit stayed.

They want to see the same place where spirits possess people, change voices and speak to other people giving them information.

It really became something serious because some people even thought it was God talking to them, and those that believe in bamweyana’s spirit uptodate go and worship the spirits. This also acts as a centre for traditional worshippers.

Today katereke prison ditch is one of the most amazing buganda cultural sites.

The sites doesn’t only have this history to offer, you will also be able get story accompaniment from the loud singing different bird types and species.

Besides the katereke ditch prison, there are other cultural sites you would spare time and look out for, like; the kasubi tombs “masiro”.

This is a special place where most of the Buganda Kingdom kings are buried, even those we have talked about here were all buried in this place.