Kampala Nightlife - From Mild to Wild

A quiet Ugandan Pub to the Inferno of Capitol Pub past midnight - Uganda's night does not end until well past into the next day.

Ugandans enjoy going out and going out they do.  The Bars stay open until morning and the party continues all over Kampala. There is a party somewhere in Kampala and I am sure you will find it, just follow the music. Nightlife is relatively safe because of bouncers in the bars and clubs and Ugandans for the most part are simply friendly and hospitable.  Take a special for hire taxi from your hotel.  Do not take a bod-boda motorcycle late at night.  Below are some places where foreigners frequent when going out at night.  Coming home, take a special hire taxi.  In town you can use Yellow Taxi which is metered, the rest of the time negotiate and bargain.  Start at half the price, and go up from there, laugh and smile a lot.  We can arrange a bar-hop or pub-crawl transport for your group or just for you at a most reasonable price, just let me know.

• Al's Bar in Kansanga:  This landmark place used to be the busiest place in town at night, but with the closing of Half-London and music that is no longer the Rock n Roll of the past, ex-pats have been shifting to other venues and Al's does not get busy until 2 am or later in the morning.  Drive by at 9 am on Sunday morning on the way to church and the revelers are still drifting out, though the doors are closed.  Inside the party goes on.  Great middle of the night snacks, they do not have pizza, sorry to say, but the best French fries (Chips) in town.  Staff is friendly, disc jockeys need help and should be in counseling for the kind of music they play.  When I go there I sit outside and have a burger and fries, there is more staff on hand then customers, but am told that after midnight things pick up...drive by on Saturday & Sunday morning, things are still happening...security search on entering if they do not know you.

• Capitol Pub:  After midnight you cannot find a seat or a place at the bar, and most foreigners new to Uganda go through culture shock of some kind while visiting Capitol Pub.  The music is loud enough to make the fabric of your shirt vibrate, the place is filled with women and men looking for women, the booze flows freely, the sodas are nice and cold, because they have been in the frig long enough until you come along and everywhere people are dancing the night away.  The music is a blend of African and mostly American Hip Hop and some oldies thrown in.  There are quite a few pool tables at which you can play a game or two for a reasonable price if you are not dancing. Capital Pub is part of the Kabalagala Night scene where parking is an impossibility after nine pm.  (Parking in back for 4000 UG Shillings-way overpriced, park on street.  They also show live English Premier League Football Matches on a big screen which attracts large crowds.  I went there to see the Euro-cup finals and see Germany lose (my fatherland), seated next to Germans with flags in hand, never to be waved...hmmm Spain won and most Ugandans rejoiced, I mumbled a few words in German. Bradts guide lists this as a seven for shock value.  Security Search if they do not know you.

• Rock Garden at the Speke Hotel:  A mixture of Afro-Rock, Hip-Hop both African and Indian style with a few American songs tossed in.  Just plan on standing.  Another place to dance in Kampala.  A stage where people dance to strobe lights, you can get a pizza at Mamma Mias next door and enjoy meeting people from every continent.  Lots of ladies of the evening, you can also find lots of them stand on the adjoining waiting for customers, be wise - beware - AIDS is real here in Uganda and so are countless of STD's.

• Bubbles O'Leary:  A transplanted Irish Pub, literally speaking, this is an authentic pub...well not quite, there is nothing on tap.  Popular with Ex-Pats, the place plays good music, has pub-grub and stays open until early in the morning. A bit of Ireland in Kampala.  Located in Kololo area. My Dutch neighbor vouches for it and says it is a great place to go for an evening.

• Kyoto:  The last time I went there in February of 2006 it was a quiet Japanese Restaurant with some great Japanese steaks.  Friends tell me that it is the happening place to rock out in Kampala and is filled with Ex-Pats and those mosquito girls who seem to buzz around wherever the action is. It is now located at Centenary Park.

• Steak-Out:  My neighbor DJ's there on the weekends.  I went with him on his first night.  A lot of people, calm and nice, not too many ex-pats, but then you are visiting Uganda.  The music is nice, maybe I am prejudiced due to my neighbor being a DJ there...well they don't play Bob Dylan but then who does in Uganda.  Food is available, nice wait-staff and some pool tables.

• Club Obbligatto:  Located on Port Bell Road: This is where on the weekend you find Uganda's best Band, the Afrigo Band.  A must see group.  You will love them.

• Punchline:  Located across the street from Capital Pub's rear entrance on Gabba Road.  It is a huge place with lots of space for outside dancing.  The music is great, my neighbor a Kenyan is a DJ day a few days a week, interesting place to say the least.  The night I watched my neighbor doing DJ duties the place was packed to the gills and a line at the entrance to get in.  Lots of students from KIU not doing their homework but out playing and dancing.

• Club Silk  and Ange Noir: have made their owners rich.  Located in the industrial area on the way to Bugolobi.  These two places are where people go who are serious about dancing. Packed with University Students.  Cover charge. 

Tips to make your night out enjoyable, yet safe:

• Cell phones and other valuables:  Leave your cell phone in your pocket.  For women, no purse, keep things on you.  Never put them on a table or you are saying goodbye to them.

• Do not flash money around:  Take some shillings with you and take out one note at a time.  Do not use US dollars, UK pounds, Euros when going out, the rate of exchange will be atrocious.

• Do not leave drinks unattended, people put things into drinks in order to get whatever they can from you while you are passed out.

• Those mosquito girls (sex workers), can be very good looking, but they do have a very high rate of STD's it is well over 50% for them.  Then there is AIDS and HIV...40 some percent of them are positive.  The prevention slogan here is ABC.  Abstention, be faithful, condoms.  I hope that you get the message, the safest is to abstain. You can also get robbed by one of them, cell-phone, wallet, money, credit cards, everything gone and that lovely girl you met is not to be found....hmmm.

• Take a Special Hire Taxi or arrange a pub-crawl with us:  If you are bar hopping as some foreigners do, hire a special for hire taxi for the evening and let the hotel negotiate the price.  You need to be careful since many for hires give commissions to hotel staff, so ask a wait staff person what the price should be. Bar hopping can be arranged for your group or for you...let us know of date and time and we will let you know the cost involved.

• Take a Ugandan with you, if you have never been out before.  It may cost you a few more shillings, but your evening will be more enjoyable and safer with someone who knows their way around.

• Ganja or Marijuana:  Ganja as it is called here can be bought anywhere.  You can smell it here a lot.  A recent visitor, who used to do pot and came with a church group told me he could smell it just driving along the roads at night.  You can buy it most anywhere, but the police also have noses and can smell it if you are smoking it and it can create a problem for you, so again, do not partake.  The minimum fine is usually 80,000 shillings, more for a westerner.

• Night on the town for women:  It is usually quite safe, a few friendly advances may be made, but a woman on the town is usually just fine, but take a Ugandan along just to be safe.

• Safety and Security Advice:  For more information on staying safe while out at night see the Staying Safe in Uganda Page.

Robberies of Western Tourists on the town are rare but they do happen at times.  Kampala is one of the safest places in East Africa.  Most robberies of foreigners are conducted by prostitutes who take a man to a cheap hotel, get him drunk or use a drug, including chloroform to knock the man out and take whatever the person has on him, cash, wallet, identification, passport, rings, watch and of course cell phone.

Recent news story in Kampala revealed that prostitutes were using chloroform to knock out their foreign clients and taking their valuables.

Factoid:  According to the world health organization, Ugandans consume more alcohol per capita than anyone else in the world.  No, it is not the Irish, the Germans, the English, it is the Ugandans.

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