Uganda has set up a specialist tourism police force as part of counter-terrorism

KAMPALA - Uganda has set up a specialist tourism police force as part of counter-terrorism measures, amid warnings of attacks by Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab, police said Friday.

Police spokesman Patrick Onyango

"The tourism police is important because it counters threats of terrorists who might want to target tourists when they are in the country," police spokesman Patrick Onyango told AFP, as the first officers entered into service.

Tourism is the east African nation's second largest foreign exchange earner, estimated to be worth $662 million a year (480 million euros), according to official statistics.

Uganda this week issued renewed warnings that Shebab extremists were plotting to use fuel tankers as bombs "to cause extensive damage to people and property".

Shebab bombers killed at least 76 people in restaurants in the capital Kampala in 2010, in retaliation after Uganda contributed troops to the African Union force fighting the Islamist in Somalia.

"The tourism police is almost a stand alone force, but under the remit of counter-terrorism" unit, Onyango added.

"The force has been deployed in areas visited by tourists like the national parks, tourism sites and major hotels."

An attack in 1999 by Rwandan Hutu rebels on Uganda's Bwindi forest , where tourists flock to track endangered gorillas, hit the country's tourism sector hard. Eight foreign tourists and four Ugandans were killed in that attack.

Over 300 new officers for the force will graduate later Friday, although Onyango said he could not give the total size of the team for security reasons.

Uganda's Minister for Tourism Maria Mutagamba said the force was to "guarantee safety for tourists" by boosting security as part of "expanded anti-terror surveillance in Uganda.

Uganda to attract Nordic tourists

Margaret Ageti Otteskov, Trade and Tourism attaché at Ugandan Embassy in Denmark addressing the media during a press briefing about the Tourism exhibition and forum to brand Uganda. Photo by Lillia Babirye

Uganda’s embassy in Denmark is to hold a tourism forum to promote Uganda safaris as a competitive destination for investment and tourism opportunities. The forum will take place on May 23rd at the Bella Centre in the Danish capital Copenhagen under the theme, “Tourism and Culture for Development.”

The forum targets five countries which include Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Iceland, and will cover components of culture to improve relations between Uganda and the Nordic region.

This was during a press conference addressed yesterday (Tuesday) at the ministry of foreign affairs boardroom, by officials from the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and Brussels Airlines.

Margaret Ageti Otteskov, who is in charge of trade, investment and tourism at the embassy in Copenhagen said the forum would be attended by government officials, tours and travel agencies, journalists and potential investors.

The officials noted that the tourism sector is a leading foreign exchange earner for Uganda, and the Nordic region has contributed to rising tourist numbers coming into the country.

Stephen Asiimwe, the UTB chairperson said the Copenhagen forum follows a successful participation in the Berlin tourism expo during which Uganda emerged 5th best exhibitor.

Asiimwe said, “This is a good opportunity to market and promote Uganda. We take it seriously.” 

The forum spearheaded by the embassy in Denmark will be held every year.

The Uganda Wildlife Authority executive director, Dr. Andrew Seguya said that the Nordic region of Europe is important because between seven to 10 percent of the tourists to Uganda’s national parks are from the Nordic region.

“We believe this effort in promoting our country will bring in visitors,” Dr. Seguya said.

He said that UWA is promoting investment in infrastructure because the shortage of accommodation in the protected areas means that tourists on average stay for short duration.

Also to be launched during the forum, will be a magazine for Ugandans in the diaspora. Suzanne Othieno, the Brussels Airlines sales executive said the airline will provide up to 50% discount on air tickets for people travelling to the forum.

Fight over online gorilla permits stains Uganda’s tourism industry

 Rukundo, the gorilla rests in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Tourists will soon access gorilla permits online to be able to visit the park according to UWA.

The tourism industry, which is one of Uganda’s top Forex earner, is engulfed in a web of disputes which have culminated into threats of strikes and other expressions of disharmony.

It all started more than six months ago when Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) moved to introduce a system which would avail online gorilla permits for public viewing and purchasing.

The tour operators came out strongly against the move and since then, both parties have been entangled in a series of accusations and counter accusations.

UWA claims they have been making annual losses of about Shs20 billion due to what they call “under-selling” of gorilla permits and they believe that the new system will not only help make it easier for tourists to purchase the permits, but it will also double the sales.

“In today’s world, the most convenient and effective way of doing business is online,” said Dr Andrew Seguya, the Executive Director UWA.

“I don’t understand why a tour operator would prefer running up and down looking for gorilla permits when actually they can easily get one on the internet. Gorilla permits online also means that a tourist anywhere in the world can be able to see and buy the permit any time even if it is bedtime in Uganda,” Dr Seguya said.

The tour operators, on the other hand, argue that the system gives no protection to the indigenous businesses and therefore it’s unfeasible for the Uganda tour operators.

“If tourists can see and access the permits online, it means tour operators in Uganda will become unwanted and therefore redundant,” argued Herbert Byaruhanga, the president Uganda Tourism Association (UTA).

“UWA has never made a loss on gorilla permits like they claim. We sell more than 100 per cent during peak seasons but we all know every business has low and peak seasons. That can’t change regardless,” Byaruhanga said.

UWA warned
He added: “The gorilla permit is the bait on a package a tour operator gives a tourist so we cannot just watch as someone tries to jeopardise our business. UWA should stick to conservation. We have been using our little resources as private sector to market this country. Is this is how they repay us?”

The cold war turned hot a few weeks ago when two newspapers ran a story suggesting that Dr Seguya had accused the minister of Tourism, Ms Maria Mutagamba, of conniving with tour operators to fail the online gorilla scheme. Consequently, tour operators converged at their offices in Kololo last week and responded with fury.

They even carried placards, some with provocative statements directed at Dr Seguya and threatened to hit the streets if necessary.

There have also been accusations that Dr Seguya has personal interest in the gorilla permit scheme, something he has vehemently denied.

In fact, there was a meeting at the Uganda Museum where one of the tour operators said he has proof that Dr Seguya overruled the decision of the contracts committee at UWA to re-instate a company which had been rejected in the bid to supply the online system.

In response, Dr Seguya warned the tour operator of the legal consequences if he continues to falsely accuse him.

UWA and business
The operators claim UWA is now run as a business and not as a conservation body hence neglecting their core obligation of “Conserving for Generations”. UWA has since purchased two professional tour vehicles to do night drives in game parks – something the tour operators haven’t been doing.

UWA also plans to introduce buses for group local tourists at budget packages, another area the tour operators have also neglected.
The UWA law allows the conservation body to also do marketing and conduct business. In fact, UWA has a department for business development and marketing.

“You can’t mix conservation with marketing, that is why we have UTB to do the marketing,” says Amos Wekesa, the CEO Great Lakes Safaris.
“Mixing the two is like sending a reporter to also collect adverts. how do you expect that reporter to practice journalism ethically with no compromise?” Wekesa asked.

Minister Mutagamba has attempted to break the impasse on several occasions and thinks her latest attempt will be a success.

“We have now resolved that gorilla permits go online but be made available to only tour operators in Uganda,” Ms Mutagamba said.
“That war is over now. But we shall be evaluating the process monthly to see the turn out and we shall make sure that both sides work in harmony,” the minister added.

This agreement is said to have been reached at the beginning of last week.
but a day later, Association Of Uganda Tour Operators (AUTO) held a press conference still disgruntled.

The question from AUTO is why Dr Seguya is keen on pushing online gorilla permits system through while UWA wonders why tour operators are fighting tooth and nail against the system which should make their work easier.
The bigger question remains whether such disagreements are good for the country’s evolving tourism sector.

UTB chairperson calls to resolve the issues
The Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) chairperson, Mr James Tumusiime, acknowledged there is a battle for survival but expressed his concerns about it spilling over.

“If a market is silent, it is worrying,” said Tumusiime. “A healthy market like Owino has to be buzzing, and I am happy to hear some voices speak out in the industry.

However, we should harmonise the current talk in our market and instead of noise, we come out with music,” Tumusiime said.

Yet, beyond the impasse, we cannot get away from the big picture of the government being the elephant in the room. Tourism, being the biggest forex exchange earner, it is pertinent government intervenes to ensure a quick resolution.

Rwenzori mountains- 'Africa's Alps' melting away

"We are the last few who will climb on the ice, it is going so fast," said Medenge, after scaling the treacherous ridge up Mount Stanley, part of the dramatic Rwenzori mountain range straddling the border between Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo.

At 5,109 meters (16,763 feet), Stanley's jagged peak is the third highest mountain in Africa, topped only by Mount Kenya and Tanzania's iconic Kilimanjaro.

But experts warn the ice is melting at "disturbing" rates, and that within two decades Africa's equatorial peaks will be bare rock, impacting agriculture and tourism.

"Every year the ice grows smaller," 54-year old Medenge added, who has been climbing the range since a teenager.

Ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy in Alexandria wrote of the snow-capped Rwenzoris around the second century AD, dubbing the mysterious peaks the "Mountains of the Moon", and identifying them as a source of the mighty White Nile.

'Canary in the mine'

 

But after centuries of wonder at the spectacle of snow on the equator, the ice is vanishing, bringing with it multiple challenges.

"The melting glaciers are another warning sign, a 'canary in the mine' of mankind's inability to contain climate change and its negative consequences," said Luc Hardy of Pax Arctica, an organisation that promotes awareness of the impact of climate change, and who led an expedition in January to the mountains.

"The melting of this unique African glacier is a major threat to local communities, with the obvious loss of sustainable water supplies," said Hardy, a French-American explorer and a vice-president of the environmental Green Cross group.

Reduced glacial river flows are already impacting agricultural production and cutting the output of hydroelectric power plants, said Richard Atugonza, from the Mountain Resource Centre at Uganda's Makere University.

"It can be a big problem in the future for the region, with the river ecology already changing," Atugonza said.

Just a handful of kilometers (miles) north of the equator, the mist-covered Rwenzoris -- meaning "rain-maker" in the local Bakonzo language -- stretch for some thousand kilometers squared (386 square miles), and include several short glaciers, though on many peaks remaining ice is now tiny patches.

British-American explorer Henry Morton Stanley was the first Westerner to sight the ice in 1889, but the dramatic sight of glinting snow in hot sunshine is fading fast, with maps showing the ice has shrunk from some seven square kilometers (2.7 square miles) when they were first climbed in 1906, to just a single square kilometer (a third of a square mile) today.

Fifty years ago, the glacier once began a stone's throw from the cliff-top Elena camp, where mountaineers shiver in basic huts before making a pre-dawn attempt to scale Stanley's peaks.

Now the ice lies almost an hour's tough scramble up a steep track on loose rocks along sheer cliffs.

Impacting agriculture and tourism

Mountain guides say the local king sends elders to sacrifice chickens and goats at the foot of the mountains to appease the gods that live in the peaks, to stem the vanishing ice.

"Global warming was not caused by people here, but it is harming us," Baluku Stanley said, chairman of one of the main trekking companies, the community-run Rwenzori Mountaineering Services.

"Of course when the ice goes it will affect tourism, even though trekking in the valleys is amazing," he added.

Spectacular valleys with fantastical vegetation akin to a fairy story -- including bizarre twisted trees draped in near luminous green lichen, giant lobelia plants and heather some five meters (15 feet) tall -- offer extraordinary trekking, even once the ice has gone.

Elephant, leopards, monkeys and chimpanzees hide in the thick lower jungle, while at higher altitudes, colorful birds endemic to the range swoop over the vast bogs that line the valleys.

But in higher reaches, new climbing routes have to be found, as the retreating ice make old paths unusable, with dangling rusting ladders once used to climb onto the glaciers now ending dangerously in mid-air.

The peaks offer some of the only  proper ice climbing in Africa, attracting mountaineers from across the world to the challenging climb, though numbers reaching the top summits are tiny compared to those scaling peaks in neighbouring Kenya or Tanzania.

"The Rwenzori are some of the most exciting glacier trekking and climbing I've done, rivaling peaks in Europe and South America," said Paul Drawbridge, a keen British mountaineer on an eight-day expedition to climb Stanley.

"It is such a shame to think that any children I may have will never get to see the ice-capped peaks."

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