Indians in Uganda: the 2026 guide to the community, the 1972 expulsion and return, Kampala, Jinja, work permits, taxes, temples and Diwali

About 38,800 overseas Indians (Indian citizens and people of Indian origin) live in Uganda, in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ estimate for January 2026. That is 29,800 Indian citizens and 9,000 people of Indian origin. The High Commission of India in Kampala’s own bilateral brief, dated April 2026, gives a lower and rounder figure: approximately 35,000 Indians and people of Indian origin, most of them holders of Indian passports, concentrated in Kampala and in the town of Jinja. Uganda’s census asks a different question and does not count Indians: the 2024 census has no Indian or Asian ethnic group, and the numbers section says what it does count.

The community has an unusual history for a country guide to carry. Indian railway labourers and traders came from the 1890s, the community was ordered out by President Idi Amin in 1972, and a smaller community returned from the 1980s as property was given back. This page is the whole of the country’s guide: the history, Kampala’s neighbourhoods (no separate Kampala page exists on this site), Jinja and the Madhvani estate at Kakira, the other towns, the rules a newcomer from India meets, safety, and the festival year. The Kenya guide covers the Kenyan half of the railway story and the October 2026 Ebola cluster in Nairobi. We did not research rents in Kampala, and say so where it matters.

Several things changed in 2026 and shape what follows. Presidential and parliamentary elections were held on 15 January and the president was inaugurated on 12 May. Uganda confirmed an Ebola outbreak on 15 May and declared it over on 28 July. The Employment (Amendment) Act 2025, which creates a regime for non-citizen workers, received assent on 29 April. The National Identification and Registration Authority began registering foreign residents on 10 June. The Income Tax (Amendment) Act 2026 took effect from 1 July with new PAYE bands. On 2 October Uganda dropped the yellow fever certificate as a condition of entry. Each is covered below.

Three figures for one community

The ministry’s table of overseas Indians, “as of January 2026”, gives Uganda 29,800 Indian citizens and 9,000 people of Indian origin, 38,800 in all. The High Commission’s bilateral brief of April 2026 says there are approximately 35,000 Indians and people of Indian origin in Uganda, most of them Indian passport holders, and that they are less than 0.1% of Uganda’s population (35,000 is 0.08% of the census total, our arithmetic). A third figure, from Vali Jamal, an economist who grew up in Kampala and wrote about the Ismaili community, is 25,000 for the “total Indian population”, in a footnote to an undated article on Simerg; because it is undated we use it only to show the range. These are estimates of different things on different dates, so we do not net them off against each other. When someone asks “how many Indians live in Uganda”, quote the ministry’s figure with its date.

What the 2024 census counts

Uganda’s census reference night was 9 May 2024 and enumeration ran from 10 to 19 May. The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) counted 45,905,417 people. Its table of the population by tribe (Table 3.2) has a row for every indigenous community, one for people with no tribe stated, one for the unclassified, and one for “Non-Ugandans”, who were 503,132 in 2014 and 1,020,865 in 2024. There is no row for Asians or Indians, and nothing we found in the report shows Ugandan citizens of Indian origin separately.

The immigration chapter measures people who were not Ugandan, had stayed at least six months, and are classified by country of birth and previous residence. It counts 1,022,577 immigrants. Figure 9.3 gives the shares by place of origin: South Sudan 45.2%, the Democratic Republic of the Congo 28.3%, Rwanda 12.1%, Kenya 5.2%, Burundi 2.8%, Somalia 2.1%, Asia 1.7%, Tanzania 1.5%, Europe 0.5%, America 0.3%, other Africa 0.2% and Oceania 0.0%. By our arithmetic from a percentage rounded to one decimal place, Asia is between about 16,900 and 17,900 people. That is every Asian country, so it takes in Chinese, Pakistani, Japanese and other nationals as well as Indians, and it leaves out anyone born in Uganda. Table 9.2 adds that among immigrants from Asia, 39.7% gave employment-related reasons for moving and 37.4% family-related reasons.

Religion and the cities

The religion table (Table 3.1) lists “Other religions” at 704,334 people, 1.5% of the total, and its footnote says the group includes Bahai, Hindus, Buddhists and others. The 2024 census gives no count of Hindus, Sikhs or Jains. UBOS also gives the populations of the cities this guide names: Kampala Capital City 1,797,722; Jinja city 279,184; Mbale city 290,414; Masaka city 294,166. Those are everyone who lives there, and the census does not say how many are of Indian origin.

The railway

Wikipedia’s article on Indians in Uganda says construction of the Uganda Railway began in 1895 and that the Imperial British East Africa Company contracted A.M. Jeevanjee of Karachi to supply labour, which he recruited in the Punjab region. The first group had 350 men, and over six years 31,895 men worked on the line, according to a 1948 article in the Uganda Journal that the article cites. Carleton University’s Uganda Collection, drawing on a 2017 thesis, gives about 32,000 recruited for the whole railway and 6,724 who chose to stay in East Africa; that figure is for the region and not for Uganda alone. The line reached Kisumu on Lake Victoria in 1901, and the main line was extended from Nakuru to Kampala in 1931. In Uganda the Busoga Railway’s pier at Jinja dates from 1912, the Nile bridge at Jinja from 1926 and Jinja’s second railway station from 1928, according to the 2018 heritage map of Jinja published by the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda. The High Commission’s own brief says Indians first came to Uganda at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Kenyan half of the story is in the Kenya guide.

The dukas and the “passenger Indians”

Gujarati traders, whom the same article calls “passenger Indians”, followed the labourers. After the railway, Carleton’s account says, Asian migrants ran small shops, called dukas, along the railway routes, and moved into wholesale and manufacturing as local competition reduced the shops. Goans, recruited in British campaigns, worked as government officials, shopkeepers, tailors, cooks and stewards. Two families show how the trade grew. Muljibhai Madhvani, born on 14 May 1894, arrived in the Jinja area as a teenager and was asked in 1914 to open and manage a shop in Jinja, according to the Kakira Sugar company’s history; Wikipedia gives 1912 for his first business there, so the date is not settled. By 1947, the Cross-Cultural Foundation’s map says, the Madhvani Building in Jinja, put up in 1919 as the town’s first storeyed building, was the headquarters of two sugarcane factories, eighteen cotton ginneries and a tobacco company. Nanji Kalidas Mehta, born near Porbandar in 1887, left for East Africa at thirteen in 1900 and founded the Uganda Sugar Factory at Lugazi in 1924, according to Wikipedia and State House.

Before independence and before 1972

Jinja was planned in 1906 with racial segregation: Asian and other non-African businesses were allowed on certain streets. It was re-planned in 1948 by the German architect Ernst May, and the centre came to be dominated by the Asian business class. The Owen Falls dam of 1954 and its hydroelectric power made Jinja Uganda’s main industrial town. The Kampala Ismaili jamat numbered a thousand as early as 1910, according to Vali Jamal, and most Kampala Ismailis lived within a mile of the jamatkhana until the mid-1950s. Wikipedia, citing a 2016 report, says the community peaked in the 1960s at between 80,000 and 100,000. Uganda became independent in 1962 and India opened its mission in 1965, the High Commission says. Carleton’s account, citing a 2017 thesis, says that in the early 1970s Asians were estimated to control 80% to 90% of the commercial sector, and that from 1966 President Obote’s “Africanisation” restricted non-citizen Asians’ place in the economy. Hinduism Today said in 1994 that Asians in Uganda had been 65% Hindu.

The order

On 4 August 1972 President Idi Amin announced the expulsion of British citizens of Asian origin, according to Carleton’s chronology and Wikipedia, with a deadline of three months, which Wikipedia puts at 8 November. On 9 August the order was extended to citizens of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan living in Uganda. The Ugandan citizens of Asian origin were treated differently, and the sources describe it differently. Carleton records that on 11 August Amin ordered checks on the citizenship papers of Asians who held Ugandan passports, that many were told their papers were faulty, and that about 10,000 became stateless. Wikipedia, drawing on Jørgensen’s 1981 history, says Ugandan citizens of Asian origin were added to the order on 19 August and exempted again three days later after international protest. Hinduism Today summed it up in 1994 as Amin giving Uganda’s roughly 80,000 Asians 90 days to leave. The law the Ugandan government later passed defines a “departed Asian” as one who left Uganda on or after 9 August 1972.

The numbers, by source

The figures differ because the sources count different groups. Wikipedia, citing a 1972 study by Patel, says about 80,000 people of South Asian descent lived in Uganda, that 23,000 had citizenship applications processed and accepted, and that up to 50,000 held British passports, although Amin claimed 80,000 in his speech. It adds that only about 4,000 citizens are known to have stayed; Hinduism Today said that about 100 Asians stayed behind. The High Commission’s brief says around 60,000 Indians and people of Indian origin were expelled. The Thomson Reuters Foundation’s report of December 2022 says 55,000, and The EastAfrican’s 2016 profile of Sudhir Ruparelia says about 50,000. Vali Jamal, writing about the Ismaili community, says 55,000 left at the end of 1972, of whom around 7,000 were Ismailis and 5,000 of them went to Canada. We do not choose one: between 50,000 and 80,000 people were affected, depending on who is counted.

Where people went, and what they could take

Carleton’s chronology gives the final admissions as about 27,000 to Britain, nearly 7,000 to Canada and about 4,500 to India, with smaller numbers to Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Malawi, Pakistan, Kenya, Austria, Sweden and Norway. Wikipedia gives Britain 27,200, Canada 6,000, India 4,500 and Kenya 2,500, and says about 20,000 people are unaccounted for. Departing Asians were limited to USD 120 and 485 pounds (220 kg) of property, Wikipedia says, citing a 2022 Washington Post report. About 5,655 firms, ranches, farms and agricultural estates were confiscated, with cars, houses and household goods, and most were reallocated to individuals. The Thomson Reuters Foundation puts the number of properties left behind at about 9,000. The mission’s brief, the Hinduism Today report and the Carleton chronology all give the same shape: a community that had held much of the commerce of Kampala, Jinja and the up-country towns was gone within three months.

What the law says

The Expropriated Properties Act, Chapter 87 of the laws of Uganda, commenced on 21 February 1983. It left property and businesses taken during the military regime (25 January 1971 to 3 June 1979) vested in the Government, managed by the finance ministry, and it kept the Departed Asians’ Property Custodian Board, created by section 4 of the earlier Assets of Departed Asians Act, in charge until the minister appointed someone else. A “former owner” (or legal heir) could apply to the minister in writing within ninety days of commencement. The minister could transfer property only if satisfied that the former owner would physically return, repossess and manage it, and an owner authorised to repossess had to return and live in Uganda within 120 days or the property could be retained or sold. The Government was to pay compensation to a former owner who was not a Ugandan citizen if the property was retained. The Act also allowed joint ventures between the Government and a former owner.

Who invited them, and when

The High Commission’s brief says that after coming to power in 1986 President Museveni invited the expelled community back and that steps such as restoring seized properties encouraged many to return. Carleton’s chronology dates the invitation to 1986 and the start of returns of land owned by Ugandan Asians to 1982; Hinduism Today, writing in 1994, dated the offer of a return to 1992, which reads as the later, formal policy. At the Diwali dinner at State House, Entebbe, in October 2025, Tribune India reported, the president said that when the Indian community was invited back after the Amin era it returned and trusted the country again. The invitation is therefore dated 1986 here, with the legal route open from 1983.

What came back

Hinduism Today reported in December 1994 that about 5,000 properties, including several Hindu temples, had been reclaimed, that the window to reclaim had expired that year and that the unclaimed 20% was auctioned. In December 2022 the head of the Custodian Board told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that 4,063 properties had been reclaimed, about 1,500 sold by the government and more than 2,000 remained unclaimed, though lawyers and community leaders put the unclaimed figure anywhere between 200 and 4,000. The report also describes disputes over owners abroad who gave others powers of attorney. How many people returned is not known. Vali Jamal wrote, in an undated footnote, that about 250 original Ismailis had returned to a jamat of 2,500 and that fewer than 2,500 original Asians had returned in all, in an Indian population he put at 25,000. The Kakira estate shows what a return meant: its timeline says the complex was returned to the Madhvani family in March 1985 and that sugar production resumed in 1989 after US$59 million of loans.

The High Commission’s brief says Indians and people of Indian origin play a major role in manufacturing, trade, agro-processing, banking, sugar, real estate, hotels, tourism and information technology. It names two pan-Indian bodies, the Indian Association and the Indian Women Association, and says more than fifty other associations represent particular states and communities. Wikipedia lists Swahili, English, Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi and Bengali among the languages.

Gujaratis

Gujarat is the largest source. Wikipedia says the Indians who traded in Uganda were traditionally of Gujarati descent. Mehta’s family came from the Porbandar area, and Sudhir Ruparelia is described as born into a Gujarati family. The Kutch community in Kampala, whose Swaminarayan temple is in Bukoto, had a small presence before the 1970s. The swaminarayan.in listing says the community acquired a house on Martin Road in Old Kampala in 1996 and converted it for worship, and the temple’s own site says Kutch families returned after the Government’s invitation of the mid-1980s. On Saturday 2 May 2026 the Indian Association Uganda organised a Gujarat Diwas evening at the Kampala Parents School grounds, with Garba Dhamal and Lok Dayro performances, vegetarian food and fireworks, free of charge, according to Eagle Online.

Punjabis and Sikhs

The labourers were recruited in the Punjab, and Wikipedia’s article on India–Uganda relations says that more recently immigrants from Punjab have come to Uganda, as have healthcare workers from Kerala. The SikhiWiki directory of gurdwaras in Africa, which we read as a search result because the site refused our requests, lists Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha and a Ramgarhia Sikh Temple in Kampala and Sri Gurdwara Ramgarhia in Jinja. The temples section lists them with the caveats.

Ismailis and other Muslims

Vali Jamal’s account says the Kampala Jamatkhana was built in the 1930s with donations matched by the Imam, on the foothills of Mengo Hill, replacing a prayer room in the market area where Allidina Visram had set up his first shop. The Nation reported on 7 February 2025 that Prince Karim Aga Khan IV was installed in Kampala in 1957 and that his development network invested in the Bujagali hydropower plant, commissioned in 2012 at a cost of USD 800 million, and in Air Uganda in 2007. We did not research the mosques, and this guide does not map them. We found no source on a Sindhi association in Uganda, so none is named.

Newer families and the towns

Charles Onyango-Obbo’s 2022 essay in AwaaZ describes a newer, working-class group of South Asians who arrived in the last twenty years, a few of them relatives of the returned families, most owners of small supermarkets in downtown Kampala and in Tororo, Kabale, Fort Portal, Gulu and Lira. He describes them as largely out of sight, rarely seen outside their shops, and gives no number. His is an opinion piece and not a count, and we use it only to say that the community is not only the old families.

Three family groups come up in every account of the community, and each is confirmed below against a source with a date. None of these notes says anything about the families’ private affairs, only what the groups themselves and the press say about the businesses.

Madhvani and the Kakira estate

Kakira Sugar’s own history gives the dates. Muljibhai Madhvani was born on 14 May 1894 and died on 11 July 1958, and his sons Jayant and Manubhai led the group after him. The Kakira factory began to crush cane in 1930 with a capacity of 150 tonnes a day. The family’s Kakira assets were acquired in 1949 when the partners of an earlier firm separated, and in 1972 the factory stopped for about thirteen years. The 1983 Expropriated Properties Act allowed the family to apply for repossession, the complex was returned in March 1985, the Government held 51% of the shares from 1987 and sugar production resumed in 1989. The page says the company can now crush up to 8,500 tonnes of cane a day, over 2.2 million tonnes a year, and make over 180,000 tonnes of sugar, and that it is fully owned by East African Holdings Ltd. Wikipedia’s article on the Madhvani Group says the group has more than 10,000 employees and lists sugar, ethanol, matches, packaging, insurance, steel, tea and hotels among its businesses; its company list cites a 2014 Forbes Africa feature, so the figures are not current.

Mehta and Lugazi

State House’s report of 13 October 2024 says the Sugar Corporation of Uganda Ltd held its centenary celebration at Lugazi on Saturday 12 October 2024 with President Museveni and the First Lady, dating the founding to 1924 by Nanji Kalidas Mehta, who is said to have come to Uganda at thirteen. The group’s products include sugar, cables, electricity from biogas (16 megawatts, State House says), ethanol, biofertilisers and roses, and it runs a hospital and dispensaries in Lugazi and schools. The president thanked Mahendra Mehta, who came to Uganda in 1952, and his wife for not giving up after the Amin years. Wikipedia’s article on the corporation says the Government held 51% and the Mehta Group 49% as of August 2011, and that the main factory is at Lugazi, Buikwe District, about 48 km east of Kampala.

Ruparelia

Wikipedia’s article on Sudhir Ruparelia says he was born on 17 January 1956 in Kabatoro, Kasese District, left for Britain with his parents in 1972 at sixteen and returned in 1985 with about US$25,000 earned from casual jobs. It dates the start of the Ruparelia Group to 1985 as a small trading firm. The EastAfrican’s 2016 profile lists the group’s sectors as banking, insurance, hospitality, real estate, education, broadcasting and floriculture, with more than 8,000 employees; that list predates the Bank of Uganda’s takeover of Crane Bank on 20 October 2016, which Wikipedia records, so check the group’s own site for today’s businesses. The group co-hosts the Diwali Food Festival at Speke Resort Munyonyo, and Eagle Online’s report of 5 September 2026 names it the principal sponsor of India Day 2026. In January 2026 Sudhir Ruparelia was a trustee of the Indian Association Uganda, when the Inspector General of Police met the association at the Kabira Country Club, according to Eagle Online.

The tax claim

The EastAfrican’s 2016 profile estimates that Ugandan Asians pay up to 65% of national tax revenue though they are under 1% of the population, and Wikipedia’s article on Indians in Uganda cites a 2016 BBC report for the same estimate. We found no figure from the Uganda Revenue Authority, so treat it as an estimate. The High Commission says only that Indians and people of Indian origin contribute a major part of direct taxes and have invested over US$1 billion in two decades.

Kampala Capital City had 1,797,722 residents at the 2024 census. This section is a map by area of what we could source. We did not research rents, markets or restaurants, and the directory on this site lists the businesses that have added themselves: see the Uganda directory.

Nakasero

Several Indian institutions are in Nakasero. The High Commission is at Plot 11 Kyadondo Road, Nakasero, PO Box 7040. The Shree Sanatan Dharma Mandal temple is at Plot 8 to 10 Snay Bin Amir Rise, near Nakasero Market, according to a tourism company’s page. Nakasero Hospital stands on Nakasero Hill; its address is given as 14A Akii Bua Road by Wikipedia and a Kampala Capital City Authority listing, which we read as search results.

Kololo

Delhi Public School International is at 19 Acacia Avenue, Kololo, on the CBSE’s record of affiliated schools. India Day in 2025 was held at the Kololo Independence Grounds, according to Eagle Online, and the 2026 edition has the Ruparelia Group and Bank of Baroda Uganda among its partners. The schools section says what is known about the school.

Old Kampala and the centre

Several of the community’s older places are in Old Kampala and the centre. Vali Jamal says the first Kampala jamatkhana was in the market area where Allidina Visram had opened his first shop, before the building at the foot of Mengo Hill replaced it. The Kutch Swaminarayan community’s first temple was a house on Martin Road in Old Kampala, acquired in 1996. The Aga Khan Mosque is in Old Kampala; the Nation says Aga Khan IV’s installation took place in the mosque there in 1957. The ISKCON centre is on the upper floor of Govinda’s restaurant at Plot 9 Dewinton Road, according to ISKCON’s centre directory and its listing on a devotees’ site; the Ratha Yatra procession has run in July from there to the Sanatan Dharma temple at Nakasero, according to a 2016 report. Downtown shops include the small supermarkets that AwaaZ describes.

Bukoto, Naguru, Namuwongo, Munyonyo and Lubowa

The Kutch Swaminarayan temple is in the Shree Swaminarayan Complex at Nsimbiziwoome, Bukoto. A Jain directory lists “Jain Samaj Uganda” on School Lane, Naguru, which we could not confirm. C-Care IHK, formerly International Hospital Kampala, is on St Barnabas Road, Namuwongo. The International School of Uganda is at Lubowa. Speke Resort Munyonyo, on Lake Victoria, is where the Diwali Food Festival is held. The Kabira Country Club has hosted events for the High Commission and the Indian Association, including a trade show on 20 March 2025 and the police’s meeting with the association in January 2026.

Getting around

The UK government’s advice calls driving standards poor and the accident rate high, names the Jinja–Kampala and Kampala–Masaka roads as places where accidents often happen, advises against travel outside the main towns after dark except on the road between Kampala and Entebbe, and says minibus taxis (matatus) and motorbike taxis (boda-bodas) do not meet UK safety standards. It also says foreign nationals have been mugged by boda-boda drivers.

Jinja city had 279,184 residents in 2024. The High Commission names Jinja, with Kampala, as the place where the Indian community is concentrated. The town’s centre is the historic main street, which the Cross-Cultural Foundation’s 2018 heritage map describes as a rare surviving trading street of dukas built by Jinja’s Asian community between the 1910s and 1940s. The Madhvani Building of 1919 is again the headquarters of the Madhvani Group. After 1972, the map says, Jinja stagnated until the 1990s, which explains the many dilapidated Asian-style buildings; since the early 2000s the economy has picked up.

Kakira

Kakira Sugar Works is the Madhvani group’s flagship company, in the Kakira area near Jinja. Its history, covered in the business families section, runs from a 150-tonne-a-day factory in 1930 to a stop of about thirteen years from 1972 and a restart in 1989. Wikipedia’s article on the group lists the Kakira Sugar Works Hospital and, in Jinja, a match factory and a steel division. The company’s page says workers and their dependants have enjoyed free education, housing and healthcare.

Indian institutions in Jinja

India set up the National Forensic Science University’s first overseas campus at Jinja. The High Commission says the Government of Uganda earmarked 130 acres, that the campus was inaugurated by the external affairs minister on 12 April 2023, that operations began in March 2024 and that the first academic session started on 2 October 2025 with four programmes, two master’s degrees and two postgraduate diplomas. An Indian military training team has been at the Senior Command and Staff College at Kimaka, Jinja, since February 2010. The High Commission held a consular camp in Jinja on Saturday 12 July 2025, covered in the missions section.

The Hindu temples and the Gandhi bust

The temple is called three different things in three sources. The High Commission’s notice of 13 June 2025 gives the venue of its camp as the “SSDM Temple, Jinja”. The 2018 heritage map labels a temple of 1926 as the “Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara (SDM) Temple”, calls it an important religious and community hub for Jinja’s Hindus and says its grounds hold a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, whose ashes it says were immersed in the Nile at Jinja in 1948. Hinduism Today reported in 1994 a “Satya Narayan Temple” functioning again with a full-time priest since July 1994 and about 250 local Hindus supporting it. We cannot tell whether these are one temple, and the community’s own name for it is the safest to use when you ask. A bronze bust of Gandhi near the Source of the Nile was unveiled by Prime Minister I.K. Gujral in 1997, according to a 2020 travel blog that adds that the Bank of Baroda maintains it.

The sources for the towns outside Kampala and Jinja are thin, and this section says what exists and what does not. The High Commission’s notice for its Jinja camp invited people from nearby regions such as Iganga, Kamuli, Buwenge, Kaliro, Tororo, Mbale, Soroti and Kumi to attend, which tells us where the mission expected its applicants to come from.

Mbale

Mbale city had 290,414 residents at the 2024 census and lies about 225 km north-east of Kampala, according to Wikipedia. C-Care’s group lists a hospital at Mbale among its Ugandan hospitals, with clinics in Jinja and Soroti. The Bank of Baroda’s 2019 financial statements, read as a search result, list a branch at Mbale. We found no source for a Hindu temple or a gurdwara in Mbale and name none.

Tororo, Iganga and the east

The BAPS visit pages, which we read as search results, list a BAPS mandir at 14/16 Bazaar Street, Tororo, one at Iganga, and one at 23/25 Oboja Road, Jinja. BAPS’s report on its 2010 anniversary says Yogiji Maharaj inaugurated the mandirs at Kampala, Jinja and Tororo in 1960. Hinduism Today found an active temple at Tororo in 1994. The AwaaZ essay lists Tororo among the towns where small Indian-owned supermarkets have opened.

Lugazi and Kaliro

Lugazi, in Buikwe District, is the home of the Mehta Group’s sugar corporation. At Kaliro, the Modern Group launched a sugar factory in August 2025: its proprietor told the Monitor that the group has invested about USD 200 million in seven factories since 2017, that direct employment at the Kaliro factory is expected to double to 3,000 jobs, and that crushing capacity is projected to reach 8,000 tonnes a day within two years. Those are the company’s projections.

Masaka

Masaka city had 294,166 residents in 2024. The UK government’s advice names the Kampala–Masaka road as a place where accidents often happen. We found no source for the Indian community’s institutions in Masaka and name none; the groups and the directory on this site are the place to look for people there.

Entebbe and elsewhere

Hinduism Today reported in 1994 that a temple at Entebbe had been repossessed but was not yet working. State House at Entebbe is where the president has hosted the community for Diwali: Tribune India says he did so in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022, and in October 2025.

Visas, passes and permits are issued by the National Citizenship and Immigration Control (NCIC), a public service institution under the Ministry of Internal Affairs that the 2026 law-firm notes still call the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control; it is at Plot 65/67 Old Port Bell Road, Kampala. All applications are made online on the immigration portal at www.visas.immigration.go.ug. The fees below are those printed on NCIC’s own class pages on 23 October 2026, which carry no date.

The classes and what they cost

Nationals of Kenya and Rwanda apply for a permit but pay no immigration fees, and Tanzanians pay USD 1,550 a year. India is not in the East African Community, so Indian nationals pay the full fee.

Other classes exist for agriculture (B1), mining (C1 and C2), the professions (F) and government employees, and we did not read their fees. The 2021 fees instrument is linked from NCIC’s resources page and was not read.

The Class G2 file

The G2 page asks for the passport’s bio-data page, a photograph, a covering letter from the agency, an Interpol clearance or valid police clearance from the home country, a valid tax clearance certificate, the current immigration status, the appointment letter, certified copies of qualifications, proof of failure to employ a qualified Ugandan, and a list of the organisation’s employees by nationality and position. The steps are to log in to the portal, choose the permit type, complete the form, upload the documents, pay, receive an approval letter by email, make any top-up payment, and report to an immigration office or border post for biometrics with the documents, receipts, approval letter and passport. An Indian national resident abroad gets a Police Clearance Certificate from the High Commission for UGX 160,000; the mission says fresh police verification is done in India and asks for at least a month.

The new rules for non-citizen workers

The Employment (Amendment) Act 2025 received assent on 29 April 2026 and inserts a new Part IXA that lets the minister gazette job categories open or closed to non-citizens and set conditions and employer obligations, according to a Global Law Experts note reviewed on 2 July 2026. The note names no notice that had yet been gazetted, says a non-citizen may not start work without a permit, and says allowing two to three months before the start date is prudent. It describes a local-advertising step with the labour ministry that it does not tie to a legal source, so ask the employer’s lawyer.

Residents, business owners and citizenship

Class H is for people with outside income who do not work. A Certificate of Residence is available to the spouse of a Ugandan of at least three years’ standing, to someone who has lived in Uganda for ten years and contributed to its development, and to a former Ugandan. Citizenship by registration after ten years’ residence costs USD 200 (non-refundable) and USD 5,000 on approval; by marriage USD 200 and USD 3,000 if the spouse is an indigenous Ugandan or USD 5,000 if a registered citizen. Naturalisation asks for 20 years’ residence and a UGX 100,000 application fee, and dual citizenship for a non-Ugandan costs USD 200 and USD 5,000. India does not allow dual citizenship: the High Commission’s OCI page says the Indian Citizenship Act does not permit it, and its passport page says a minor whose parent renounced Indian citizenship after the child’s birth has ceased to be an Indian citizen and can resume it only at 18.

A visit first

The single-entry tourist visa costs USD 50 on NCIC’s page, and the East African tourist visa USD 100, valid for 90 days across Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, according to the UK government. Uganda no longer asks for a yellow fever certificate for entry, NCIC’s notice of 2 October 2026 says, but India does ask for one from travellers arriving from Uganda (see the health section).

Registering with NIRA

The National Identification and Registration Authority began a mandatory registration of lawfully resident foreigners on 10 June 2026 under the Registration of Persons Act. It covers holders of work permits, student passes, dependant’s passes, certificates of residence and special passes, and visitors staying under 90 days are exempt. Registrants receive a unique identification number and an alien identification card whose validity matches their immigration permission. The steps in EIG Law’s note of 11 June are to pre-register online or complete Form 4, generate an assessment with the Uganda Revenue Authority, obtain a payment reference and pay USD 100, then attend NIRA’s centre at Plot 62 Lumumba Avenue (Wandegeya) for document checks, a photograph and biometrics. You need the passport, a valid Ugandan visa and proof of the immigration permission. The Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Work Permit Section is a second place to register. Fragomen reports that the card “will now be required” for foreign nationals to obtain public services. None of the four notices we read gives a deadline or a penalty, so ask your employer’s immigration adviser what applies to you.

A tax number

The Uganda Revenue Authority’s page lists a passport (marked mandatory), a visa and a work permit as the documents a non-citizen gives for a taxpayer identification number. A law firm’s alert of June 2026 says the authority issued a notice on 21 May 2026 requiring taxpayers to update their registration with a National Identification Number for individuals and a Business Registration Number for companies, that the standalone TIN is being replaced as the main identifier, and that guidance for expatriates without a national number had not been issued. We found nothing that says whether the alien card’s unique number counts, so ask your payroll before the first return.

A SIM card and mobile money

MTN Uganda’s page says foreigners need a valid passport to buy, swap or upgrade a SIM and that SIM cards are activated only after verification by NIRA. In May 2018 the communications regulator told operators to issue SIM cards to foreigners only on a valid passport and visa and to deactivate them when the visa or work permit expires, according to ITWeb; that is the older rule and the operators’ pages are the current one. MTN also offers a free tourist SIM against a passport and visa. MTN’s mobile money is MoMo (*165#) and Airtel’s is Airtel Money. We found no page that says what a foreigner needs to open a mobile money account or what the limits are, so ask at the shop. Keep your Indian number for bank messages from home.

A bank account

We did not open any bank’s personal-account checklist for foreigners. Bank of Baroda opened a branch at Kampala in 1953, Wikipedia says, and runs Bank of Baroda Uganda Ltd; Absa’s and the Bank of Baroda’s corporate-account pages, read as search results, ask for a passport and, for foreigners, a work or resident permit. Each bank sets its own checklist, so ask before you go.

The High Commission’s brief says Indians and people of Indian origin have invested over US$1 billion in Uganda in two decades and employ thousands of Ugandans. On 28 January 2026, at India’s Republic Day reception in Kampala, the state minister for foreign affairs said Indian companies had invested about USD 465 million in the last five years, creating more than 15,000 jobs, according to the Monitor. That is a government statement and not an audited figure, and we found no Uganda Investment Authority breakdown by country for 2025.

The trade figures

The mission’s brief gives trade between India and Uganda in US dollars millions, taken from India’s commerce ministry.

The Monitor’s report of August 2025 uses a different dataset for 2023 (Indian exports of about USD 1.23 billion and Ugandan exports to India of about USD 1.5 billion, mostly gold), so read the figures as indicative. The brief says Indian exports are mainly pharmaceuticals, vehicles, plastic, paper and organic chemicals, and imports are vegetables, coffee, tea, spices, wood, cotton and cocoa. A double taxation agreement has been in effect since 2004.

Who is named

The High Commission says that at a trade mission organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry with Equity Bank at the Serena Hotel on 22 and 23 October 2024, the vice president of Tata Motors and the chief executives of Aptech, Ashok Leyland and Airtel took part, that 35 Indian companies joined the Uganda Pharma and Healthcare Expo of 26 to 28 March 2026, and that an Aptech franchise and ISBAT University in Kampala bring Indian education closer. Airtel Uganda and Bank of Baroda Uganda are named partners of India Day 2026. We found no source on Indian information-technology employers hiring in Uganda, so we name none.

Reading a job offer

A Class G2 permit needs proof that no qualified Ugandan could be found, and the 2026 Act adds a regime for non-citizen workers, so a job offered to an Indian national should name the employer, the permit class and who pays the fee. We found no advisory from the High Commission on job scams in Uganda, but the Pulse Uganda guide of December 2025, quoting the jobs site BrighterMonday Uganda, says a genuine employer never asks for a fee to secure an interview or to cover processing costs. Do not pay anyone for a permit that the portal issues for the fees above.

Two things come off a Ugandan salary: income tax collected as Pay As You Earn (PAYE) by the employer, and a pension contribution to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). Employers also withhold Local Service Tax for the local authority. The figures below are those of the 2026/27 year.

Income tax

The Income Tax (Amendment) Act 2026 was assented to on 20 August 2026 and takes effect from 1 July 2026, according to KAA and Pulse Uganda. The authority’s notice of 7 September told employers who had filed July and August returns on the old rates to amend them and refund overpaid PAYE. RSM’s Uganda tax guide for 2026/27 gives the same resident-individual bands.

On a monthly salary of UGX 5,000,000, our arithmetic from the table gives PAYE of UGX 1,388,250 (33,750 plus 30% of 4,515,000). The authority’s own PAYE page was an image when we opened it, so the bands are from the law firm, the news site and RSM, which agree.

Who is resident

RSM’s guide says an individual is resident if they have a permanent home in Uganda, or are present for at least 183 days in a 12-month period that starts or ends in the tax year, or for periods averaging more than 122 days in that year and each of the two before it. The India–Uganda double taxation agreement has been in effect since 2004 according to the High Commission; we did not read its text, so ask an accountant how it treats salary, pensions and Indian income.

What an expatriate package can include

RSM lists benefits that are exempt from tax for full-time employees, among them the international passage cost for non-citizens recruited outside Uganda, an employer’s reimbursement of medical expenses or medical insurance premiums, and an employer’s contribution to a statutory retirement fund. It values employer-provided housing at the lower of market rent or 15% of employment income.

NSSF

NSSF is 15% of gross monthly income: 5% from the employee and 10% from the employer, payable by the 15th of the following month, in RSM’s guide. On UGX 5,000,000 that is UGX 250,000 from the employee and UGX 500,000 from the employer. Whether an expatriate on a permit must contribute depends on eligibility rules that we did not read in the Act, so ask your payroll. Local Service Tax is withheld by the employer and remitted to the local authority by 31 October, with a penalty of 50% for late payment.

Hospitals and insurance

The UK government’s advice says medical facilities in Uganda are limited, especially outside Kampala, and advises travel insurance that covers local treatment and air evacuation. We read the sites of two private hospitals in Kampala. C-Care IHK, formerly International Hospital Kampala, is at Plot 4686, St Barnabas Road, Namuwongo, and C-Care’s group lists hospitals at Mukono, Mbale, Gulu and Mbarara and clinics at Kololo, Entebbe, Jinja and other towns. Nakasero Hospital has its own website, which describes emergency medicine with an intensive care unit and a high-dependency unit, on-call consultants and an emergency team “every day of the year”, an enquiry option for international patients and a list of insurance partners; its address is given as 14A Akii Bua Road by Wikipedia and a city listing. We did not research other hospitals or their fees. The Madhvani and Mehta groups run a hospital at Kakira and a hospital and dispensaries at Lugazi, and India donated a radiotherapy machine commissioned at Mulago Hospital in February 2020, according to the High Commission. Under the RSM guide an employer’s reimbursement of medical expenses is tax-exempt, so ask for a package that includes cover.

Ebola, 2026

Uganda’s Ministry of Health confirmed an outbreak of Bundibugyo virus disease on 15 May 2026 after an imported case from the DRC died in Kampala, and the World Health Organization’s Director-General determined on 17 May that it was a public health emergency of international concern. WHO’s notice of 21 May listed two confirmed cases in Uganda, both in Kampala and imported, and no identified local transmission. The outbreak ended up with 20 confirmed cases, 18 discharged and two deaths, Al Jazeera reported, and the minister declared it over on 28 July after a 42-day monitoring period; the UK government says WHO declared the Uganda outbreak over on 27 August 2026. The outbreak in the DRC continues, with some 9,700 confirmed cases by 20 October according to Wikipedia’s tally, and there is no licensed vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo species. On 27 May Uganda closed its border with the DRC, and the UK government says it keeps border precautions. On 20 October Nigeria confirmed a case in a woman who had arrived from Uganda, NPR reported, adding that Uganda had declared itself free of the virus. The High Commission’s advisory of 21 May says India screens passengers arriving from affected countries including Uganda and asks for a self-declaration, so check the current rules before you fly.

Yellow fever and travel to India

Uganda’s immigration service said on 2 October 2026 that a yellow fever certificate is no longer mandatory for entry into Uganda. India’s rule runs the other way: the High Commission’s notice of 6 June 2025 says travellers aged nine months or over arriving from a yellow fever endemic country, including Uganda, must carry an internationally valid certificate, valid ten days after vaccination, or be quarantined for up to six days. The UK government also lists malaria, mpox and Marburg virus disease among the health risks.

Delhi Public School International is the CBSE school named on the board’s own record of affiliated foreign schools. The record gives its address as 19 Acacia Avenue, Kololo, Kampala, affiliation number 7630001, with senior secondary status and an affiliation period running from 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2032. Eagle Online reported on 21 April 2026 that 58 of its pupils sat the Class X examination, that 20 scored above 90% and that the school average was 82.7%. We did not find the school’s fees, its owner or its roll. The CBSE record also shows an Indian International School at Plot 9 Nakasero Road, but its listed affiliation period ended in 2017, so ask the board before relying on it.

The International Baccalaureate

The International School of Uganda at Lubowa offers the International Baccalaureate Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma programmes, according to its own website, which has a page for fees and financial assistance and gives the telephone number +256 41 4200374. Aggregator sites print fees for it and for other Kampala international schools, but they are not the schools’ own schedules, so none is printed here. Ask each school for its full fee schedule, registration fee and any deposit or levy.

The student pass and the dependant’s pass

A foreign child aged four or over at a school in Uganda needs a student pass, which costs USD 100 for three, six or twelve months. The immigration service’s page asks for the student card, the passport, a school support letter, the admission letter, proof of fees paid and the parent’s status. A child of a work-permit holder may instead hold a dependant’s pass at USD 200, so ask the immigration service which applies; the dependant’s pass does not authorise work.

Indian scholarships and the other direction

The High Commission says about 1,200 Ugandan students are studying in India, that 32 Ugandans a year receive full scholarships from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, and that more than 200 places a year are allotted under the ITEC programme. Those places are for Ugandans, not for Indian families living in Uganda.

Applying

Apply as early as the school allows, keep your child’s transfer certificate and recent reports attested, and ask whether a place will be held until the permit and dependant’s passes are issued. A birth or marriage certificate issued by the Ugandan authorities that the High Commission needs is attested by Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs first.

Where and when

The High Commission of India is at Plot 11, Kyadondo Road, Nakasero, PO Box 7040, Kampala, and is accredited to Burundi as well. Its consular hours are walk-in: applications for passports, police clearance, visas, OCI and miscellaneous services are received from 09:30 to 11:30 on working days, with delivery from 16:00 to 17:00, and there are no appointments; a token is issued at the gate. Telephone enquiries are taken only from 14:00 to 16:00 on working days. The emergency helpline for Indian nationals in distress, with WhatsApp, is +256 700 542 440. All other communications go to the nodal email addresses on its contact page; for passports, police clearance, visas and OCI the consular address is cons.kampala@mea.gov.in. The mission’s 2026 holiday list includes Diwali on Sunday 8 November and Uganda’s Independence Day on 9 October, and has no entry for Guru Nanak’s birthday.

Passports

Passport applications are made on the new portal that the mission has accepted since 1 September 2025, then submitted in person with the documents and fees in cash. The mission issues passports only to Indian nationals ordinarily resident in Uganda or Burundi, accepts a reissue up to a year before expiry, and does not offer Tatkal. Its fees, in Ugandan shillings: 36 pages UGX 480,000 and 60 pages UGX 665,000; a minor up to 15 years UGX 345,000; lost or damaged 36 pages UGX 945,000 and 60 pages UGX 1,130,000; a first passport for a child born in Uganda UGX 400,000 (UGX 85,000 for birth registration and UGX 315,000 for the passport). Documents issued by the Ugandan authorities are attested by Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

OCI, visas and police clearance

The fresh OCI registration fee is UGX 1,050,000, in cash and in shillings only, and processing can take up to 60 days. Applicants of other nationalities must have been ordinarily resident in the jurisdiction for over six months, a rule relaxed for children of Indian nationals or OCI holders up to the age of twelve. The mission’s page says a physical OCI card issued earlier has been discontinued and an electronic registration certificate is issued on approval of a miscellaneous application; a passport update within three months of a new passport is free, and later it costs UGX 110,000 from 27 March 2026. The OCI page excludes anyone who is or was a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh, so a Ugandan citizen of Indian origin applying here should check which ancestors lived in territory that is now Pakistan or Bangladesh before paying. Police clearance costs UGX 160,000. E-visa and regular visa services were resumed on the online portals on 10 September 2026; the mission’s notice says a backlog of applications is pending.

The Jinja camp and the registers

The mission held a consular camp at the SSDM Temple in Jinja on Saturday 12 July 2025, from 10:00 to 15:00, for passports, police clearance, birth registration of newborn children, attestations and OCI, open to people from Iganga, Kamuli, Buwenge, Kaliro, Tororo, Mbale, Soroti and Kumi; fees were cash only. We found no 2026 camp. Eagle Online’s report of 13 January 2026 lists a “Deputy Head of Security Wardens for the Indian Community” among those at the police meeting, which suggests a warden system exists; we found no page that describes it.

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s advice for Uganda, updated on 8 October 2026 and still current on 23 October, is the dated, reputable source we found. Its latest update was to remove the yellow fever certificate requirement. It names no Kampala neighbourhood to avoid and asks for particular care in western Uganda near the border with the DRC and in the national parks.

The January 2026 election

Presidential and parliamentary elections were held on 15 January 2026. The Electoral Commission declared President Museveni the winner on 17 January with 71.65% of the vote (7,946,772 votes) to Bobi Wine’s 24.72% (2,741,238), on a turnout of 52.5% of 21,649,067 registered voters, according to Wikipedia. Mobile internet was suspended from 13 January. Bobi Wine rejected the result and alleged fraud; an African Union and regional observer group led by the former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan said the vote was peaceful and found no evidence of ballot stuffing, but reported intimidation, arrests and abductions and said the shutdown disrupted observation; Human Rights Watch said the elections were marred by abuses. The Monitor reported on 16 January that at least 12 people had died and dozens were injured in violence in central Uganda and Kampala, including clashes in Makindye Division between opposition supporters and security forces, in which tear gas and live ammunition were used, and said it was contained by 6 pm that day. Reuters, quoted by Wikipedia, reported at least seven protesters killed overnight. The president was inaugurated on 12 May. We found no report that the unrest targeted Indians or Asians, and the Inspector General of Police met the Indian Association at the Kabira Country Club before the vote and promised protection for people and property, Eagle Online reported on 13 January.

Crime, terrorism and the law

The UK government says tourists who show signs of wealth may be targeted, that thieves target cars and taxis stopped in traffic, that boda-boda drivers have mugged foreign nationals, that drinks and food have been spiked on public transport and in bars, that methanol poisoning is a risk, and that strangers who call asking for money are likely scammers. It advises against walking after dark and says to use indoor cash machines. It says terrorists are very likely to try to attack, that targets can include places of worship, hotels, restaurants, transport hubs and large gatherings, and that attacks have occurred in western Uganda and in Kampala; the most recent it lists are of December 2023 (13 killed in Kamwenge District), October 2023 and June 2023 (42 killed at a school in Mpondwe). At a temple, a gurdwara or a community hall, expect guards and bag checks.

Rules that catch newcomers

The advice says to carry a copy of your passport’s photograph page, that military-style clothing is illegal, that photographing military, official and diplomatic sites is forbidden, that on the last Saturday of each month from 7 to 10 am a national cleaning day closes businesses and restricts movement, that giving money, food or clothing to street children in Kampala is illegal, and that same-sex sexual activity is illegal and can carry severe penalties. Emergencies: 999.

Opening times change, so call before a first visit, and dress modestly, take your shoes off and ask before photographing inside. This site has no Uganda temples page, so none is linked. The table says where only one source exists and where we read a directory or a search result because the site refused automated requests.

Notes

Hinduism Today reported in 1994 that the Sanatan Dharma temple was one of two temples that had stayed in Hindu hands, and that a Swaminarayan temple in Kampala that had been used as a hall had been repossessed and was being renovated. Temple dates in older sources do not always agree, and the 1961 date used here is the one the Diwali page also gives. The Sunday programmes at temples and gurdwaras are open to everyone and are the easiest first visit; a gurdwara asks you to cover your head.

Diwali is kept in Uganda’s temples, halls and homes and is not a public holiday; in 2026 it falls on Sunday 8 November, a weekend day. The High Commission’s 2026 holiday list shows Diwali as a mission holiday. The Indian Association Uganda’s Diwali Food Festival is held at Speke Resort Munyonyo on Lake Victoria with the High Commission and the Ruparelia Group. The 2025 edition was on Sunday 19 October, with more than 100 food stalls and over 15 cultural performances registered a week beforehand, according to Eagle Online, and more than 8,000 visitors, the Monitor reported, including more than 20 diplomats; the Diwali page gives the association’s own count as 108 stalls and 21 performances. The 2024 edition was on Sunday 27 October. No date for the 2026 festival had been announced by 23 October. The Diwali in Uganda page and the Diwali in Kampala page carry any 2026 programme as it is announced. President Museveni and the First Lady hosted the community at State House, Entebbe, for a Diwali dinner on Sunday 26 October 2025.

Fireworks

As the Diwali page summarises, police guidance for New Year 2026 said displays must be run by licensed blasters under the Explosives Act after police clearance, with a five-minute limit, and that the police did not want people setting off their own. We found no separate Diwali rule, so light diyas at home, ask the police before planning anything, and ask your temple or the Indian Association which licensed display is running.

The rest of the year

India Day, usually around 15 August, is another large public event; Eagle Online says the 2025 edition combined Indian music, dance and food with a fundraiser for Ugandan children born with heart defects, and its September 2026 report names the 2026 sponsors, among them the Ruparelia Group, Airtel Uganda and Bank of Baroda Uganda. The report does not name the organiser. The Uganda events page and the Kampala events page list Indian events as organisers post them.

Most day-to-day information in the community runs on WhatsApp groups organised by samaj, temple, language, school and workplace: which clinic takes your insurance, which landlord to avoid, whether a road is open. They are fast and generous. But you need to know someone to get the link, links circulate for months after a group has died, every member can usually see your phone number, and groups are where scams spread: the “permit provided, pay the processing fee” job, the flat that needs a deposit “today”, and the consular appointment offered by someone who says he acts for the High Commission, which has no appointment system at all.

What Namaste Community adds

Namaste Community’s app and website have groups, events, a directory and a way to ask questions. The local groups for the country are on the Uganda groups page, the events on the Uganda events page, and the Uganda directory lists the businesses on the site; a business can add itself. Groups in the app are moderated and tied to a place, Ask lets members put a question to people who have done it, and an anonymous mode exists for questions you would rather not attach to your name, such as a permit, a tax or an alien-card query.

Your first week, practically

1. Open the Uganda groups, join the one nearest to you and read before you post; the paperwork answers are often there already.
2. Go to one event in your first fortnight, such as a Sunday programme at a temple or gurdwara, and say who you are.
3. Say in your question whether you are an Indian national on a permit, a dependant, a visitor or a Ugandan Asian family, because the answers differ for permits, OCI, tax and schools.
4. Never send a deposit, a passport scan or a fee to someone you met in a group without checking who they are.
5. When you have found your doctor, your school and your grocer, leave an answer for the next person from Pune, Ahmedabad or Hyderabad. This guide links no city page for Kampala or Jinja, so start from the country pages, and if the group you need is missing, start it.

The groups near you are listed below.