Bulange (boo-lah-ngeh), is a building in Uganda. It houses the Lukiiko (Parliament) of the Kingdom of Buganda. The Kabaka of Buganda also maintains offices in the building. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Buganda Kingdom.[1]
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Bulange is located on Namirembe Hill, close to Namirembe Hospital, about 1 mile (1.6 km), northwest of the main gate of Mengo Palace, in Kampala, Uganda's capital and largest city. This location is approximately 2 miles (3.2 km), southwest of the city center of Kampala.[2] The coordinates of the building are:00 18 35N, 32 33 30E (Latitude:0.3095; Longitude:32.5585) A straight road, approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) long, called Kabaka Anjagala Road (The-King-Loves-Me Road) leads from the main entrance of the Mengo Palace to the entrance of Bulange.
In the beginning, the Buganda Parliament would convene inside one of the Kabaka's palaces and conduct business under the shade of one or more trees. Later, grass-thatched buildings served as the 0arliament buildings. Around the beginning of the 20th century, the then Prime Minister of Buganda, Sir Apollo Kaggwa, contracted an Indian Alidina Visram to build a parliament building using bricks. As the Kingdom's government grew in size, need for a large-enough meeting hall forced the construction of the Bulange outside the King's Palace for the first time.
While in exile in Scotland in 1953, Ssekabaka Muteesa II saw and admired the construction drawings of a building. He brought those drawings with him on his return from exile, in 1955. He directed that the new Bulange be constructed according to those drawings.Construction began in 1955 and was completed in 1958 at a cost of US$5 millions.[3]
