Lyantonde is located in the South-western region of Uganda. Lyantonde borders Rakai District in the South, Masaka in the East, Kiruhura in the West and Sembabule in the Northeast. The District headquarter is in Lyantonde Town Council. The distance from Kampala, the National capital city is of 193 Kilometres.

The name Lyantonde was derived from an old lady (named Ntonde) who used to sunbathe at the only protruding open rock in the dry corridor. Whenever people passed by during the daytime, they could look at the top of the rock and see the old naked lady sunbathing. This prompted them to always give directions to people like at ‘Ejjinja lya Ntonde’ meaning at Ntonde’s rock, thereafter, Lyantonde Sub-county and Lyantonde Town Council and now Lyantonde District Local Government were named and created.It is composed of six Sub Counties and one Town Council.

Lyantonde District was created by the resolution of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda on 13th July 2006 and became effective 1st July 2007 it was curved out of Rakai District. Lyantonde District is the former Kabula Sub-District. It gained the Sub-District status in 1975 under the decree that created Sub Districts.