Muzinga Square Park is a small public park on the Entebbe airport road, below State House, built around an old artillery piece. Muzinga is the Luganda word for cannon, and that is the whole of the name: the gun square. What you do there is look at the gun, look at the two soldier statues standing beside it, sit on a bench in the shade, and work out for yourself which of the stories told about it is true.
It takes ten minutes. It is worth those ten minutes if you are already on that road, which most visitors to Entebbe are, and it is a better stop than it sounds because the history attached to it is genuinely unresolved. The Entebbe guide covers the town around it.
Things to Do at Muzinga Square Park on an Entebbe Tour
There is one object and one question. The object is the gun, set on open ground with statues of two soldiers next to it and seating arranged around. The question is where it came from, and nobody who will be standing there with you can answer it from a source.
Treat it as a short stop rather than a destination. Drivers running between the airport, the town and the lakeshore pass the square constantly, and pulling in costs nothing. People use the park as a park: shade, benches, somewhere to sit that is not a hotel garden.
What a Tour Finds There: the Cannon, the Statues and the Benches
The gun is the reason the square exists and it is usually described as an anti aircraft piece. It sits in the open, unfenced, and you can walk right up to it. Nothing on the site explains what it is, what unit used it or how it got there, which is the first thing you notice and the thing that makes the stop interesting rather than dull.
The two soldier statues were added later, put up to commemorate what is said to have happened at the spot. Together with the seating and the planting, they turn a piece of abandoned military hardware into something that reads as a monument. Whether the thing being commemorated is the thing that actually happened there is the next section.
Two Origin Stories That Cannot Both Be True
Travel pages about Entebbe carry both of these, sometimes in the same paragraph, and they belong to different decades.
The first says the gun stands for Uganda’s part in the Second World War. Ugandan troops did serve in that war in large numbers, in Burma and in the Horn of Africa, and war memorials to them exist elsewhere in the country.
The second says the gun was abandoned by Tanzanian troops at the end of the war that removed Idi Amin, after they moved on Entebbe and were fired on while trying to destroy the municipal building. On that telling, the gun was left where it stood and the town simply built a park around it.
Those are separated by roughly thirty five years and by two entirely different armies. We could find no authoritative source for either, and no plaque, museum record or official listing that settles it. Every version online traces back to the same short passage, copied from page to page. If a guide tells you one with confidence, ask what they are going on.
Entebbe’s Military Past on a Town Tour
The confusion is understandable, because Entebbe has carried more military history than a lakeside town of its size should. It was the colonial administrative capital, it holds State House, and its airport has twice been at the centre of events that reached far outside Uganda.
The war that ended Amin’s rule reached Entebbe near its close, with Tanzanian forces advancing on the town and the airport before Kampala fell. That is recent enough that people in Entebbe remember it, and it is the background the second story draws on. The historical tours guide covers Uganda’s harder history and where it can be seen.
The Old Airport Terminal: the Other Stop Tours Confuse With It
Visitors interested in Muzinga Square often want the other thing, and the two get mixed up. The old terminal at Entebbe airport is where hostages from a hijacked Air France flight were held in the middle of the nineteen seventies, with Amin’s government hosting the hijackers, before an Israeli force flew in at night and took the hostages out. One hostage who had been moved to a hospital in Kampala was killed and her body was recovered later.
That building is inside airport land, not on the public road, and access is not a matter of turning up. Anyone who wants to see it needs to arrange it properly in advance through official channels, and should expect the answer to be no as often as yes. It is not part of a Muzinga Square stop and no driver can simply take you there.
Using the Park: Shade, Benches and a Walking Trip
As a park it does its job. There are trees, there is seating, and it is a short walk from the centre of Entebbe town, so it works as a pause on a walking route between the town, the lakeshore and the botanical gardens.
Do not photograph towards State House. That is the standing rule anywhere near a Ugandan government residence and it applies here, because the square sits directly below it. Point the camera at the gun and the statues and nowhere else, and if anybody in uniform asks what you are doing, answer plainly.
Getting There and What to Pair It With on a Half Day Tour
The square is on the main road between Entebbe town and the airport, so any driver knows it and you will pass it without trying. From Kampala it is the Entebbe run of roughly forty kilometres by the expressway or the old road.
On its own it does not justify a trip. Paired with the botanical gardens, Kigungu and the wildlife centre it rounds out an Entebbe half day nicely, and it is the only stop of the four that costs nothing at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there an entrance fee? No. It is a public park on a public road with no gate and nobody collecting anything.
What kind of gun is it? It is usually described as an anti aircraft piece. Nothing on site identifies the model, and we found no record that does, so anybody naming a specific gun to you is guessing.
Which story about the cannon is correct? Unknown. One says Second World War, the other says it was left by Tanzanian troops at the fall of Amin, and the two are decades apart. No source we could reach settles it, and this page would rather say so than pick one.
Can you visit the old airport terminal from here? No. That is inside airport land and needs arranging in advance through official channels. It is a separate matter from the square entirely.
Is it safe to walk around? Yes, in daylight, with the usual care about where you point a camera given how close State House is.
Is it worth stopping with children? For ten minutes, yes. There is a large gun to look at, statues, and room to move, and nothing about the site is upsetting.
Uganda Safaris lists safaris sold by independent Ugandan tour operators. We take no booking, handle no payment and charge you nothing. No operator sells Muzinga Square as a trip, so the practical route is to contact one through the enquiry route about an Entebbe half day and ask the driver to stop at the square on the way between the gardens and the airport.