The nameNamed for a man who never saw it
Samuel Baker and Florence Baker, travelling up the Nile in 1864, were the first Europeans recorded to see the falls. Baker named them after Sir Roderick Murchison, president of the Royal Geographical Society in London, who never visited. In the 1970s, Idi Amin's government renamed them Kabalega Falls, after Omukama Kabalega, the king of Bunyoro who resisted British rule. That name was never made legally official, and Murchison returned after Amin fell, though you will still hear Kabalega used.
The second waterfallUhuru Falls, born with a nation
Just before the main gorge, the Nile splits. The larger branch forms Murchison Falls; a smaller one spills over a wider ledge nearby as Uhuru Falls. Local accounts say this second channel broke through around 1962, the year Uganda became independent, which is why it carries the Kiswahili word for freedom.
The decisionKept wild instead of dammed
In 2019, Uganda's government rejected a proposal to build a hydropower project at the falls, choosing to protect one of the country's most important tourism sites. For a river already harnessed elsewhere in Uganda, it was a clear statement that this stretch would stay untamed.
