The largest town in the district is Kagadi, in Buyaga County, followed by Karuguuza in Buyanja County. A main trunk road was built in 1997, the result of co-operation between the governments of Uganda and Ireland. The road connects the towns of Mubende, Kakumiro, Kibaale, and Kagadi.
The Ugandan government had plans in 2012 to split the district into three smaller districts. Those plans, however, are on hold because of funding constraints.[3][4]
History
Kibaale District is part of the Kingdom of Bunyoro, one of the traditional monarchies in Uganda. The kingdom is coterminous with the Bunyoro sub-region. Kibaale District is part of an area known as the "Lost Counties”. The 1900 Buganda Agreement defined the boundaries of the Buganda Kingdom, including the important areas of Bunyoro south and east of the Kafu River.[5] The “Lost Counties” were included as a sub-national territorial element of Buganda. The administration of the Lost Counties as well as Bunyoro itself was modelled on the Buganda political system and under the leadership of Baganda chiefs. In a referendum held in November 1964, the residents in the two lost counties voted to return to the Kingdom of Bunyoro.[6]
The 1991 national population census estimated the district population at 220,300. In 2002, the national census put the population at 405,900. The annual population growth rate of the district was estimated at 5.4 percent. It has been estimated that the population in 2012 was 681,300.[10]
Demographics
According to the 2002 national census, about 60 percent of the population were Catholics, 30 percent belonged to the Church of Uganda, and 3 percent were Muslim. The district, like most of the Western Region, is a predominantly rural area, with an average population density of around 145 square kilometres (56 sq mi). Only about 1 percent of the inhabitants live in urban settlements. Kibaale District has the highest fertility rate in Uganda (8.2).[11]
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