MV Kaawa set to resume lake ferry service from Port Bell to Mwanza

MV KAAWA DUE TO RETURN TO FERRY DUTY

(Picture courtesy New Vision file photos)

ONLY 7 YEARS after colliding with MV Kabalega, which subsequently sunk into the deep of Lake Victoria, will the MV Kaawa return to service. Diddling with the pros and cons of repairs versus building a new rail ferry, the concept of repairs finally took hold and a long overhaul and refitting by Southern Engineering has seen the ferry set sail a few days ago for seaworthiness tests, after getting clearance from the marine oversight body in Kampala.
The return of a Ugandan rail ferry will boost the flow of goods to and from the port of Dar es Salaam through the connection with Mwanza port on the Tanzanian side of Lake Victoria, from where imports and exports are transported by rail to the Indian Ocean.
Much of the funding had reportedly come from World Bank loans and grants dedicated to boosting the transport sector and under this programme over 3 million US Dollars were availed by the World Bank towards the final bills of putting the ferry back on the water.
In the past have even vehicles been transported across the lake, allowing residents of Uganda to reach the Tanzanian side of the lake at Mwanza and then self drive into the Serengetis Grumeti Sector, less than 2 hours drive away from the city while passengers, often backpackers, have also used the ferry services to cross the lake and explore other equally exciting parts of Eastern Africa at a very reasonable transport fee. Welcome back to the MW Kaawa it is and as always, watch this space.

New routes, more frequencies announcements expected when RwandAir gets new CRJ900 jets

RWANDAIR SET TO MAKE ROUTES ANNOUNCEMENTS WHEN NEW CRJ900S ARRIVE

Regular sources close to Rwandas national airline RwandAir have given the clearest indication yet that once the two ordered Bombardier CRJ900 jets have been delivered, thought to take place in October or latest November this year, the airline will almost immediately announce an increase in frequencies to key destinations in the East African region but also additional routes, as the longer distance Boeing 737s can be freed from flying the present core routes and be re-deployed to new destinations.
From sources in Juba it is understood that the South Sudan capital may well be on the drawing board, either nonstop or via Entebbe, while a number of destinations South of Rwanda are said to be under intense scrutiny vis a vis viability, as is an added West African destination, either stand alone or in combination with the airlines flights to Lagos.
There is also now increased speculation over the announcement of additional aircraft purchases, either through lease or outright ownership and the two B737-500 aircraft, leased from GECAS, are also rumoured to be due for replacement with larger and more modern versions of the short and medium haul jets, as passenger numbers keep growing way above industry average and demand for travel to and from Rwanda has in recent years rocketed.
Next in line for purchase though appears a new turboprop aircraft, with Bombardier being the frontrunners after showcasing their Q400 aircraft in Rwanda three months ago and doing a demonstration flight for pilots and management of the airline.
In a related development are also announcements expected about the timelines of the planned Bugesera International Airport which is due to open in 2016 and will bolster the connectivity of the country by allowing larger wide body jets to fly to the Land of a Thousand Hills. Watch this space to capture announcements as and when they are made, and at times even ahead of the official release.

Minister admits failure to repair Narok to Masai Mara road

MINISTER ADMITS DISMAL FAILURE AS CHINESE COMPANY SET TO FIX MARA ROAD
All but admitting to have misled the Kenyan public in the past, the Minister for Roads had to eat humble pie during a public interview on one of Nairobis TV stations, when he had to reveal that the notoriously bad road between Narok to the Masai Maras Sekenani gate would have to be repaired by a Chinese company, after local companies, contracted and largely paid for the contract, failed to deliver any improvement.
Tour and safari companies have regularly complained to their own ministry of tourism and tour drivers repeatedly staged protests blocking the vital road, on which according to one regular source from Nairobi the profits of a company can be lost through broken springs, broken shock absorbers and damage to the car bodies, and delays in reaching the Mara or returning tourists in time to the airport for departure flights for which we are held responsible. Cars get stuck overnight at times and considering the income tourism brings to Narok Council and the government at large it is a disgrace. They are promising this road upgrade for years and years, ministers come for site visits, make more promises, dish out more money to crony companies and nothing changes. Maybe we should sue the minister together with government for the damages we suffer and make him pay so that others who follow him learn a lesson and keep our roads passable.
There has been a wrangle on responsibility for this road between the Narok council and central government which will only be resolved after the next elections, when provisions of the new constitution come into full effect and which will leave the newly formed counties responsible only for feeder roads while the central government will assume full responsibility for all main roads classified as A, B and C.
By and large the government of President Kibaki has done a good job on roads and he will be in our history books for these accomplishments for sure. But the road to the Masai Mara remains a sore in our side and as an industry we have been let down in so many things. Less funding for KTB, attempting to make tourism services a VAT item which will raise the cost of holidays at a time when we struggle to keep numbers up, the constant quarrels over the Nairobi airport expansion which prevents new airlines from coming here and bringing more passengers, the poaching and how government deals with it and a lot more. Mombasa has about 20 percent less arrivals this year compared to last year and from receiving the most tourists has now yielded to Nairobi. Coast hotels suffer from poor occupancies except a few top performers which always keep their hotels in top shape and the scenes in Amboseli when Masai speared elephants or killed the lions in Kitengela went around the world giving us very negative publicity. Government needs to understand tourism needs a holistic approach and not just a bit here and there he added in with bitter disappointment.
Minister Franklin Bett during the interview said that a financing deal has been reached with China for the re-construction of the road but left out the crucial element of committing to have the road in its present state repaired, potholes filled and maintenance work continue until the new road will be formally commissioned in a few years time. Said another source in this respect in an overnight mail: He was shy to say anything on the money paid to useless contractors. We demand that the road is fixed now while we wait for a new one to be built. We can no longer tolerate the potholes and craters, that has to stop. Let government give that work to the Chinese too if necessary because our Kenyan companies have failed us completely.
The Masai Mara is every year the centre of the wildebeest migration when during late June till at times early November the great herds cross into the Masai Mara in search of pasture, before then returning to the low grass plains between the Serengeti and Ngorongoro, where they give birth to the next generation before resuming then the annual pattern of migration. The Masai Mara at this time of the year is normally jam packed with tourists coming from around the world to see the amazing spectacle of the herds crossing the Mara River, running a gauntlet of huge crocodiles waiting for them in the river and the predators on both sides, taking their prey at will. Safaris at their best, Magical Kenya at her best, if only the roads were better. Watch this space.

Poaching in Tanzania ‘completely out of hand’ according to parliamentary report

TANZANIA PARLIAMENT TOLD OF 30 POACHED ELEPHANT A DAY
A report recently submitted to and discussed by parliament in Dodoma makes stark reading and confirms what has been rumoured for long, that the rate of poaching is way higher than Tanzanian officials have previously admitted.
During the period between 2006 and 2009 as many as 30.000 elephant, many from the poorly guarded Selous but generally right across the country and often under the very noses of law enforcement, have been slaughtered in a silent massacre, which casts a dark shadow over the countrys commitment to conservation.
The commercial scale killings continue unabated and experts think that as many as 30 elephant are now being killed a day, which would put the annual figure to a staggering 10.000+ and for which the chairman of the committee on land, natural resources and environment as well as the shadow minister for natural resources and tourism blasted the government. Committee chair James Lembeli was quoted to this correspondent to have said when talking about the ongoing wildlife massacres: The committee directs the government to address poaching issues in its entirety and stop poaching activities in the country while Peter Msigwa, shadow minister on the opposition benches for natural resources and tourism challenged the ministerial statement to the house by reportedly saying: It is a shame to hear the government say that poachers have a lot of money and use highly sophisticated methods, when we expect the government to ensure the security of the wild animals.
Tourism minister Ambassador Khamis Kagesheki had earlier on tried to put a positive spin on the situation when giving figures of patrols, in this context however seen as largely useless considering the scale of the elephant decline in Tanzania, while claiming that nearly 2.000 suspected poachers have been apprehended and those processed through court been fined nearly 175 million Tanzania Shillings.
It has generally been acknowledged in Eastern Africa that the current legislation is not able to cope with the commercial type poaching any longer and that crippling fines need to be combined with long jail sentences for those found poaching and those financing the activity and then attempting to smuggle the blood ivory out of the country. However, amendments to the respective laws have been slow in coming, often resulting in poachers getting bail and resuming their bloody handiwork literally on the same day, while fines are laughably small and jail sentences, if any, expressed in weeks or months rather than decades.
It has also been noted with growing concern that the respective governments are clearly downplaying the true extent of poaching within their jurisdiction and are not facilitating the anti poaching efforts of TANAPA, KWS and UWA to the extent needed to cope with the use of sophisticated communications gear now regularly found with poachers, nor their gang like structures and business like organisational set up.
Said a conservation source in Nairobi, on condition of anonymity: No names please, I do not want to get arrested too like my colleague from EcoTourism a few months ago, but to be honest, what we now face is the final battle to keep our wildlife alive. In Kenya we see a trend to fence parks and reserves and cut off migration, which is going to be very bad for the gene pool development in these areas. Wananchi take the law in their own hands because KWS does often react too slowly. We had lion killings, elephant killings and now new threats to kill elephant in the Narok area too. I personally hold politicians responsible for that. For one, the wildlife act should have been amended a long time ago to cater for higher fines and longer jail terms. Then KWS needs to be facilitated better in anti poaching, surveillance and exit point monitoring to capture illicit cargo. And those with political ambitions for next year who incite wananchi to spear lions and elephant should be taken to court and prosecuted. But importantly, KWS also needs to tell the truth no matter how bad the figures are, because by being slow in coming up with figures it opens them to criticism and then rumours start taking over from facts.
Meanwhile have other sources from Tanzania made a range of further allegations about a new hunting block being allocated to Middle Eastern royalty, where as many as 48.000 people are bracing for being driven off their ancestral land as a multinational company engaged in hunting, similar to events some time ago when in a similar deal people were beaten up, forcefully removed and their homesteads turned into ashes by security personnel while government big cats enjoyed the alleged pay offs while their compatriots were turned from self sustained herders into paupers. A petition has been started to provide the public shame going along with such questionable practises, in particular in the light of poaching figures now circulating in Tanzania, that the government would still sanction hunting, decimating threatened species even further for the proverbial 30 coins. Watch this space but also click on the petition link and sign: http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_maasai/?bBfKgdb&v=17109