Uganda news flash – President Museveni sworn in to new term of office

OUR OLD PRESIDENT BECOMES OUR NEW PRESIDENT, AGAIN

All roads were leading to the Kololo Ceremonial Grounds today, as President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni took his oath of office for another term of 5 years. Tens of thousands of enthusiastic Ugandans had lined up along the perimeter, watching the ceremony unfold, after ‘M7’ arrived on the stroke of 11 a.m. and then awaited the arrival of his fellow presidents and heads of government honouring him and Uganda on this day with their presence, a resounding vote of confidence in the stability of the country.

The end February election win of President Museveni, which also saw a two third NRM majority return to Parliament paved the way for the function today.

The head of the Electoral Commission declared the President duly elected before Chief Justice Odoki administered the oath of office to the jubilations of all present, while a 21 gun salute was fired.

Cultural groups from all corners of Uganda performed dances and songs, while the Uganda People’s Defense Forces performed the Honour Guard and executed a text book march past, spurred by the tunes of the Uganda Police Band, arguably the best in the country. The Uganda Air Force also staged a fly past with the fighter jets, ejecting pink clouds into their trails, which caused the crowd to go wild, as the colour pink has in recent days gained special significance when dealing with opposition rabble rousers in the streets.

Notably was the East African anthem played ahead of the Ugandan anthem when the function commenced and ended, signifying a firm commitment towards further regional integration and cooperation during the President’s new term of office.

Defeated presidential candidate Abed Bwanika was also given a strong ovation for being present on the occasion, having put his defeat behind him, while other defeated candidates had opted to stay away from the function, for reasons best known to themselves and best described as an act of childish defiance.

The full text of the President’s acceptance speech is available in due course from Uganda’s leading daily newspaper, the New Vision via www.newvision.co.ug but significantly the President did commit himself, and his new government, to tackle the current wave of price increases as well as ensure the safety and security of all law abiding citizens in the country, to be able to go after their daily business without fear or worries, while highlighting the NRM’s achievements over the past 25 years since it came to power after dislodging the last of the notorious dictatorships in January 1986 and bringing peace, development and progress to the country.

Kenya conservation news – Tourism and conservation stakeholders oppose Lake Nakuru road

PLANS FOR ROAD THROUGH NAKURU PARK ‘UNACCEPTABLE’

‘Have our planners learned nothing from the controversy about the highway project across the Serengeti’ asked a furious tourism stakeholder from Nairobi, when news emerged that the Nakuru council and the Kenyan Road Authority had put up proposals to create a ‘bypass’ for the traffic which presently snarls from further upcountry through Nakuru and congests the municipality.

Plans for a highway around Nakuru date back almost 40 years but were never pursued until recently revived and brought into the public domain when tenders for planning and designs were advertised.

Lake Nakuru National Park, world renowned for its ‘pink shores’ when countless lesser flamingo are present and feed in the alkaline waters of the lake, is one of Kenya’s biggest tourist magnets and a major source of income for Kenya Wildlife Services and the municipality. The park is also home to the endangered Rothschild giraffes and most notably Kenya’s first designated rhino sanctuary, created back in the early 1980’s when poaching was as rife as it is today again. Any attempts to reduce the size of the park, already shrunk from its long ago size and now totally fenced off to restrict animal migration and protect adjoining farmlands, would lead to serious consequences for the game inside the park, and a road, as is the case with the planned Serengeti highway, would have potentially devastating consequences.

Tourism stakeholders and the conservation fraternity were quick to serve notice to government that national parks were a ‘no go’ area for national roads and that they would swamp government with court cases, petitions and if necessary peaceful protests in Nakuru and Nairobi, should the plans not be shelved and the planned road not be routed differently.

Watch this space as yet another conservation saga is in the making, pegging conservation against ‘progress and development’.

Uganda news update – Samuka Island Lodge re-opens

SAMUKA ISLAND REOPENS ITS DOORS

It was learned recently that the Samuka Island Lodge has opened its doors again to visitors, Ugandan and foreign alike. A new speedboat collects guests at the Source of the Nile for a ‘ride’ out onto the open lake and in less than an hour visitors reach Samuka Island offering grand views towards the mainland on one side and the open lake and other islands on the other. According to owner Daniel Tyler some refurbishments and renovations have been carried out before throwing the doors wide open again and visitors are welcome with immediate effect. Details on rates and room availability can be obtained through the property’s Kenyan General Manager Ronald who can be reached via +256 772 401508, direct email contact still to be advised.

A visit to Samuka also offers plenty of opportunity to sample the adventure activities along the upper Nile valley, or go out on Lake Victoria for a spot of fishing.

Uganda news update – Quo Vadis Tourism

QUO VADIS UGANDA TOURISM

Tourism and hospitality operators, under cover of strict anonymity for fear of repercussions and being potentially singled out for violent reactions by political ‘rent-a-hooligan’ gangs, have started to comment on the recent spate of opposition demonstrations in Kampala and upcountry political hot spots. While careful not to be too offensive in their comments towards the responsible section of the opposition, probably mindful that the opposition today may sometime in the distant future mature enough to become the government of the day, the underlying sentiments are nevertheless strong and may give opposition strategists an insight just how much they are offending stakeholders in tourism responsible for providing hundreds of thousands of jobs for Ugandans and potentially creating a new wave of anti opposition sentiments spread by business leaders.

Today is the swearing in ceremony of President Museveni, following his convincing election victory, which magnitude was predicted by all opinion polls including those commissioned by the opposition parties and their foreign NGO friends – all taken aback by the results of the polling and eventually the votes cast.

Economic development and progress, including in the tourism industry, has for many years been a hallmark of the NRM government, and while government is regularly criticized over the lack of sufficient funding for the Uganda Tourist Board and related institutions at least government has provided an enabling environment for business to prosper. In fact, government’s ability to bring peace to the country and through a series of economic and fiscal measures ensure economic progress and development over the past two decades are arguably the main factors for the election win, something either not understood or overlooked altogether by the opposition.

The onset of the political crisis in Northern Africa and parts of the Middle East, which sent oil prices rocketing and fueled global inflation hit East Africa’s populations, not just Ugandans very hard, and though relief is now in sight due to the sharp downward correction of crude oil prices, this will take a while to translate into the cost of imported items, including fuels, to come down.

It was here that sections of the opposition perverted the daily struggle of Ugandans, who cannot afford a bus far and have to walk to work. Staging scripted ‘walk to work’ protests, with sections of the local and international media in league and almost open cahoots, they were attempting to turn the daily challenges of life for many Ugandans into counterproductive road blockages, random violence by rented mobs and looting of mostly small scale retail businesses.

Government came down hard and fast on them but the deliberate way of biased and one sided reporting by sections of the media swiftly portrayed Uganda as an unsafe destination, to the deluded delight of the perpetrators of such incidents who happily see the economy, and in particular the tourism industry sink into the abyss, ready to destroy what has taken 25 years to build if only to serve their own selfish purposes and satisfy their own egos.

Tourism operators have now warned that the country could lose as much as 100 million US Dollars a month in projected tourism incomes, as airline chiefs in Kampala too have sounded the alarm over the cancellation of booked tickets with potential visitors scared off by sensational TV pictures NOT reflecting the reality on the ground. Hotel managers have confirmed a trend downwards of occupancies since the opposition started their ill conceived campaign and safari operators and car hire firms are seeing their fleet utilization come down too, as have occupancies in safari lodges and camps in the national parks.

As said here before, Uganda is a fundamentally peaceful country, with unique attractions worth visiting, from Lake Victoria and the Source of the River Nile to the Mountains of the Moon, from gorilla tracking in Bwindi and Mgahinga to the spectacular scenery of Kidepo Valley National Park and from Murchisons Falls to Kibale Forest. The municipality of Jinja has acquired the byname of ‘Adventure Capital of East Africa’ for its range of thrilling attractions, offering white water rafting, river trips, bungee jumping, quad biking, horseback riding but also hikes along the river and trips by bicycle through the friendly villages nearby. Over the years, and while admittedly with a more focused and deliberate financing of the sector by government much more could have been achieved, the progress of the industry is impressive by any standards. Indigenous stakeholders, arguably more than in any other country of the East African Community, have come to the forefront of the tourism industry and are now providing tens of thousands of direct and even more indirect jobs, tourism after coffee and tea is the highest foreign exchange earner for the country and the upswing of demand has seen more and more international airlines fly to Entebbe, connecting Uganda to the world and the world to Uganda.

Said a leading stakeholder yesterday to this correspondent: ‘…the opposition lost the plot when they started to incite violence amongst their supporters. They cannot deny this. It is on public record that the main culprit has even ruled out the use of force when asked before the elections. Does this not show what is going on in his mind? Ugandans have rejected him, three times in a row. I and many of my colleagues welcome our government’s response. Ok, some measures were poorly executed and the responses seen on TV were unproportional here and there, but in the final analysis those blocking roads, throwing stones, looting and stealing in the midst of what they created were getting what was due to them. No government can just look on when rented hooligans and criminals are unleashed on the people, and the motives behind it are clear, it is an attempt to grab power by illegal means.

Already our hotel occupancies are down, restaurants have empty tables, hire cars are left parked and less safaris go on the road to the parks. Business leaders now must speak out and stand up, support government in reasonable measures to restore quiet on our streets and demand of the opposition to make their case in parliament when it is inaugurated next week. Politics in Uganda is no longer for the streets, it is for the institutions we have created for that purpose. You yourself have struggled with us for many years to make tourism what it is today and I and my colleagues sincerely hope that this political madman is not allowed to destroy what we built by hard work and determination.  We have to tell them ‘No you Cant’, stop the violence and stop going on the streets before you ruin all of us, otherwise expect no sympathy when you get arrested again and thrown in jail, you are no martyr, you are by all means a political failure and hooligan now.’

Similar sentiments were expressed in varying degrees by other stakeholders in regular contact with this correspondent, showing how fed up the tourism industry, but also the business community in general have become with these attempts to rock our peace.

It can only be hoped that after the formal swearing in of the president today and the announcement of a new government, calm will return to Kampala allowing our visitors from abroad to peacefully walk our streets, sightsee and shop as has for long been our hallmark.

Tanzania aviation news – Precision Air ‘shows off’ new pilots and engineers

PRECISION AIR SHOWS OFF NEW PILOTS AND ENGINEERS

Tanzania’s leading airline has released information yesterday about their successful cooperation with French aircraft manufacturer ATR to train engineers and pilots alongside the 7 aircraft purchase deal signed back in 2006. All aircraft have since been delivered and are flying in the Precision colours across the Tanzanian and East African skies while 8 engineers trained by ATR on aircraft maintenance for their -42 and -72 aircraft have also returned home and joined the Precision Air workforce.

Precision has invested heavily in a new hangar in Dar es Salaam where scheduled light and heavy maintenance is now being carried out, keeping such work inside Tanzania and saving the airline substantial expense compared to previous times when such maintenance had to be contracted out to facilities capable of meeting the required standards and approved by the Tanzanian Civil Aviation Authority at substantial cost.

At the same time has the airline announced that 4 pilots trained to fly the ATR aircraft have also completed their integration into the pilot’s ranks and are now flying for Precision, including two lady pilots, still a rarity in East Africa and across the continent. According to a source at the airline the trainee pilots were selected from amongst hundreds of applicants and trained from ‘scratch’ at the expense of Precision Air, graduating through the various pilot stages until they ‘checked out’ for the ATR range of aircraft used by Precision as First Officers. The cost of becoming a commercial airline pilot is generally prohibitive for most aspiring young people and it is often only through the sponsorship of an established airline that the citizens of the East African countries can manage to fulfill their life’s ambition and take to the skies.

Precision Air deserves unreserved congratulations and compliments for their commitment to train young Tanzanians for such responsible positions and assist in gradually phasing out expatriate pilots.