Abstract:

KIGEZI is one of the smallest districts in Uganda, tucked away in the south-...western corner. It has a total area of approximately 2.000 sq. miles and with a present population of about 400,000 people. It was one of the last districts in Uganda to come under British rule and the present boundaries with the Belgian Congo and Ruanda were defined by the Anglo-German-Belgian Boundary Commission of 1911. The first Europeans to enter Kigezi were Emin Pasha and Stuhlmann in 1891 on the ill-fated expedition which ended with the murder of Emin Pasha. " Uncertainty as to how the boundary clauses of the Anglo-German Agreement of 1890 should be applied to topographical facts, which were only subsequently found to exist, left much of Kigezi 'in the air' for years" (I) and these were only settled in 1911. Civil administration began in 1912 with a political officer being stationed at Kumba, a Kivu Mission Post, situated at mile 13 on the present Kabale—Kisoro Road. The district headquarters were moved to their present site at Kabale in 1914.