Uganda New Years celebration
Nile Bridge in Uganda close the city of Jinja
The Nile River
The new year 2021 celebrations in Uganda were ushered in by an illuminated Source of the Nile Bridge in Uganda’s second city Jinja.
Unlike previous celebrations, this year’s was a low key event with fireworks only permitted at the bridge due to the covid pandemic.
A stage was set up with entertainment provided by a bevy of musicians and deejays to live telecast on major television stations which was the only chance to witness the fireworks. Police strictly monitored the event blocking motorists from accessing the bridge in preparation for the fireworks. Patrols were kept busy all night trying to enforce the public from defying the 9:00 pm curfew although several bars remained opened with revelers partying till the wee hours while others who had lit bonfires played cat and mouse chase with police
The midnight fireworks were dampened by a downpour, in a sense a blessing of hope for a good harvest or good fortune in the African traditional setting , what just the world needs in 2021. Opened in October 2018 by Uganda’s President H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni the cable-stayed 525metre Source of The Nile Bridge is the main artery to the busy Kenyan border that connects the export /import trade in the region to the East African port of Mombasa. It was built with a grant from the Japanese government, replacing the aging Nalubale Bridge that was commissioned together with the hydroelectric Owen Falls dam by England’s Queen Elizabeth II in 1954. Known as the adventure capital of East Africa for rafting, quad biking, horse riding, and bungee jumping.
Jinja is where the source of the river Nile begins its a 4000-mile journey to the Mediterranean.It is the longest river in the world traversing Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt with several other tributaries and sources from river Kagera in Rwanda to the Blue Nile in the Abyssinian highlands in Ethiopia.
The new bridge has become the country’s iconic landmark for new year fireworks. ‘Uganda’s answer to Sydney Bridge ‘ …quipped one reveller.
Tags: Uganda, New Years celebration
