The Ankole Kingdom burial grounds are at Nkokonjeru, on a rise at Kakiika a few kilometres out of Mbarara, where the last two Omugabes lie under concrete slabs inside a colonial era house. A Nkokonjeru tombs tour takes fifteen minutes to half an hour and there is almost no interpretation on site, so it works only if you arrive knowing the story. The Mbarara guide sets it in a wider western route; this page is what is actually on the ground.
What a Nkokonjeru Tombs Tour Actually Shows You
A small building. Two slabs inside it. More graves in the grass outside. That is the site, and anyone who tells you otherwise is describing somewhere else.
Accounts of its condition differ sharply, which is worth knowing before you go. Some visitors describe a place close to abandoned, with the grass long and the paint going. Others report a recent tidying up, with the slabs redone and the structure repaired after local campaigning. Both are probably true of different years, because the site has no permanent institution behind it and its upkeep comes in bursts.
Distances given for it vary too. The district lists Nkokonjeru hill at about a kilometre and a half from the district headquarters; travel accounts usually say three kilometres out at Kakiika. Either way it is a short ride from the middle of Mbarara and you will want directions rather than a map pin.
The Two Omugabes a Nkokonjeru Tour Puts You In Front Of
Omugabe Edward Solomon Kahaya II is under the first slab. He died during the Second World War, after a long reign that carried Ankole from the making of the colonial agreement through to the middle of the protectorate period.
Under the second is Sir Charles Godfrey Rutahaba Gasyonga II, his successor, who reigned for twenty three years and died in the early nineteen eighties. His reign ended not with his death but with the abolition of the kingdoms in the late nineteen sixties, which left him living another fifteen years as a private man in a country that had removed his office. He is the ruler who built the palace at Kamukuzi, and he is buried three kilometres from it.
Royal Graves Outside the House on the Tombs Tour
The graves in the grounds are the part most visitors walk past. They hold other members of the royal family, and they are not laid out as a cemetery is laid out, so ask before wandering. People still come here to perform rites. It is not a ruin and it is not a park, and treating it as either will read badly to whoever is watching.
Keep your voice down, ask before photographing, and if there is a rite in progress, wait or come back. The site has no rope lines or signage to tell you where the boundary of good manners sits, which means you have to bring your own.
Ankole Burial Grounds Tours and a Kingdom Never Restored
Here is the fact that makes Nkokonjeru different from Kasubi or Mparo. Uganda abolished every kingdom in the late nineteen sixties. Four of them came back in the early nineteen nineties. Ankole did not, and it still has not, because the Banyankole themselves have never agreed that it should.
One argument holds that the abolition was unlawful and the Obugabe should simply resume. The other holds that a kingdom organised around a division between Bahima and Bairu should not be revived in that shape. Attempts to install a successor have gone unrecognised. The consequence is standing in front of you: royal tombs with no royal court to maintain them, no annual ceremony, no clan structure obliged to turn up and re thatch anything.
That absence is the strongest thing about visiting. Elsewhere in Uganda a royal tomb is a working religious and political site. Here it is the grave of an institution as much as of two men.
What Visitors See of the Land Dispute on a Nkokonjeru Trip
Parts of the land around the tombs have been sold to private developers, and the fight over that is live rather than historical. You will see it as building plots pressing towards the site and as a boundary nobody can point to with confidence.
Local groups have campaigned to reclaim the ground and to get the tombs recognised and maintained. Whether that succeeds is an open question. Ask the caretaker what the current position is, because it changes, and anything published about it goes stale quickly.
Getting to Kakiika and How Long the Tour Takes
Kakiika sits a few kilometres from the centre of Mbarara, and a boda gets you there in ten minutes for very little. Drivers know it as the royal tombs rather than by the village name. There is no gate to speak of and no visitor centre, so arriving with somebody who has been before saves a good deal of circling.
Fifteen minutes is enough for the slabs. Half an hour if the caretaker talks, and that is the version you want. Go with a Runyankole speaker if your party has one.
Pairing Nkokonjeru With Kamukuzi and Igongo on One Ankole Trip
On its own the site is thin. In sequence it is the best fifteen minutes of the day. Do the Igongo Cultural Centre museum first for the history, then the restored palace at Kamukuzi, then come here last. The restored palace and the unattended tomb belong to the same kingdom and say completely different things about what happened to it.
The wider Ugandan picture sits in the royal heritage guide, which covers the tombs and palaces of the kingdoms that were restored, and makes the contrast with Ankole clearer still.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there an entrance fee at Nkokonjeru?
There is no ticket office and no published tariff. What normally happens is that a caretaker shows you round and a contribution is given at the end, which is customary rather than fixed. Take small notes. Nobody will name a figure and nobody should invent one for you.
Is it worth visiting at all?
Honestly, only as part of a sequence. Driven to on its own by a visitor with no background, it is a locked or half locked building with two slabs in it. Visited after Igongo and Kamukuzi, by somebody who knows the kingdom was never brought back, it lands hard. Decide which of those you are.
Can I go inside the building?
Usually, when the caretaker is there to open it. Sometimes not. There is no schedule to consult, so a visit here always carries a chance of finding the door shut, which is another argument for pairing it with sites that do keep hours.
Are photographs allowed?
Ask. The answer is normally yes for the building and the slabs, and the polite answer for the family graves outside, and for anyone performing rites, is to put the camera away. This is a working burial ground for some of the people who come here.
Who maintains the tombs now?
Nobody permanently. With no restored kingdom, there is no royal household and no clan obligation behind the site, so care has come from local volunteers, cultural associations and occasional public interest. That explains why accounts of the condition differ so much from one visit to another.
How does it compare with Kasubi or Mparo?
It is much smaller and far less presented. Kasubi is a World Heritage listed royal enclosure with a living clan structure behind it, and Mparo holds Kabalega in a Bunyoro kingdom that was restored. Nkokonjeru has two slabs and an argument. That is the interest, not the architecture.
Uganda Safaris lists safaris sold by independent Ugandan operators. We take no booking, handle no payment and charge you nothing. No trip on this site is sold as a Nkokonjeru visit, so the way in is to contact an operator running the western route through the enquiry route and ask for a Mbarara morning that takes in the palace, the museum and the tombs together.