Our story
Built around a grandmother’s table
Hotel Rukia is named after Rukia Namusoke, whose Ggaba guesthouse fed travellers and neighbours from one long courtyard table for thirty years.
Since 2014
From twelve rooms to the lakeshore
It began in 2014 when Nadia and Kato Namusoke, grandchildren of the original Rukia, rebuilt the family plot as a twelve-room guesthouse. The courtyard stayed exactly where it was — the table, the grapevine, the rule that no one eats alone.
The rooms grew quietly, never in a hurry. Today there are forty-two, set between the courtyard and the lake. What hasn’t changed is a house that treats a one-night business stop with the same care as a wedding party of two hundred.
What we believe
Three things we won’t compromise
42rooms & suites
200guests at a full wedding
38staff across the house
2014the first year of service
Quiet comfort, not silence
Welcome-home ease, from the welcome juice at check-in to a staff that knows the lake’s moods before you do.
Local, first
Vegetables from the Ggaba market, tilapia from the lake, coffee roasted ten kilometres away. The courtyard kitchen cooks around whatever is fresh that week.
Guests who come back
Nearly a third of our bookings are repeat guests or their recommendations. We measure success in the notes people leave — and the weddings they bring back.
The location
On the shore of Lake Victoria
Ggaba is the water’s edge of Kampala — where the city’s chaos gives way to fishermen, mango trees and the widest horizon in the district. The hotel faces the lake; Entebbe Road sits fifteen minutes one way, downtown the other.
- 15 minutes from central Kampala
- 45 minutes from Entebbe International Airport
- Boat rides, bird walks and Ggaba landing within walking distance
- Airport transfers arranged from your booking email
Come and see
The courtyard is better in person
Stop by for a coffee, meet the team, or send a message and we’ll hold the door open.