Lighthouses of Uganda

The Repubic of Uganda is a landlocked nation in East Africa, located west of Kenya. The country was under a British protectorate from 1894 until it achieved independence in 1962. Although the country has no seacoast it borders the northern and northwestern side of Lake Victoria, the world's largest tropical lake. There is commercial transportation on the lake and many ferries connect its ports.

In 2014 the Comarco Group received a contract to install lightbeacons at Kisumu in Kenya, at five locations on the lake in Tanzania, and at three locations in Uganda. The Jinja lighthouse shown at right is one of these three lights. The other two, at Entebbe and Port Bell (near Kampala) have not been located.

General Sources
Navionics Charts
Navigational chart for Lake Victoria.

Lighthouses
* Jinja
2015. Active; focal plane about 17 m (56 ft); light characteristics unknown. Approx. 11 m (36 ft) round barbell-shaped fiberglass tower colored with red and white horizontal bands. Frank Thompson's distant view is at right, Cosmas Getate also has a distant view, Aleks Stocki has a 2022 street view, and Google has a satellite view. This light is of the same design as the modern lights at Mombasa, Kenya. Jinja is a city of about 300,000 residents located on the north shore of Lake Victoria at the outflow of the White Nile River, the river that drains the lake. Located at the base of the Jinja Pier, which serves rail ferries connecting Uganda Railways to Mwanza in Tanzania and Kisumu in Kenya. Site appears open, tower closed.


Jinja Light, Jinja, November 2021
Google Maps photo by Frank Thoresen

Information available on lost lighthouses:

Notable faux lighthouses:

Adjoining page: East: Kenya

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Created November 27, 2022. Checked and revised December 14, 2023. Lighthouses: 1. Site copyright 2023 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.