Community Literacy Project

With a population of over 22,043 people, majority of whom are children, youth and refugee women, Buyiga Island is not as far away as might be expected. It is found in Kamengo Sub- County, Mawokota North constituency, in Mpigi District. Most of the houses occupied by locals are makeshifts with a few of them being semi-permanent.

Their major source of income was originally fishing but the operations to fight illegal fishing declared by President Museveni which has seen many landing sites closed, crippled this activity and the locals are now slowly switching to cultivation and rearing animals.

The island falls under Musa parish in Kamengo Sub- County and has two villages – Buyiga A and Buyiga B. The local leaders want and have suggested the creation of four new villages namely Kabudindiri, Bagdad, Bibbo, and Kitawuluzi in order to raise the number to six and thereby make Buyiga island an independent parish from Musa.

Access to the island
To access the island, one travels from Busega round about along the Kampala-Masaka Road, to Buwama stage, boards abodaboda (motorcycle) to Kigga kye Buyiga). From there, one boards a motorboat to sail via a channel with a thick swamp on either side which joins Lake Victoria. The distance is about 8km and lasts about an 20minutes before one gets to Buyiga Kitawulunzi landing site.

It is a difficult journey for those not accustomed to it. When one the boat gets stuck in the middle of the waters in the swampy area, which happens often, it has to be pushed by people travelling on it. In fact, about three men get into the boat to travel with the passengers purposely to push it through the swamp when it gets stuck.