Air Uganda has currently added to the number of times that its flights fly to different places around the world in an effort to attract more tourists from around the world and this has increased the fight for traveler amongst the East African countries. And according to the report released last week on Thursday, it was clearly indicated that the airline will be using the Nairobi-Entebbe route 3 times in a day as well as over the weekdays so that they are able to meet the demands of the customers.  Flights between Juba and Entebbe have also been increased and come up with flights that go straight from Uganda to Zanzibar and Mombasa.

At the moment, Air Uganda goes to just five places in the whole of the East African region from Entebbe after the airline got a 17% increase in passenger traffic in October 2011 regardless of an increase in the price of the tickets and therefore became Ugandan very first carrier to stay in the market for more than two years after the down fall of Uganda Airlines and its collapse was as a result of negligence of the staff and the tight competition from other operators and Kenya Airways. Air Uganda plans to work hard to compete with all the airlines in business and hopes for the best by the end of the year and hopes to help develop the tour company.

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The government of Uganda through its Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) has come up with ways of wiping out Tsetse flies that have camped in the areas around Murchison Falls National Park so that they can be able to re-establish confidence in the tourists who visit the nation and help to develop Uganda’s tourism industry as mentioned by Fredrick Luyimbazi the Assistant Commissioner for Entomology.

Luyimbazi said while on his trip to Murchison Falls National Park that despite of the fact that these flies are no longer many, it is very important to wipe out also the few remaining ones so that tourists can feel secure to visit the park. He also made a stopover at Sambiya River Lodge, Red Chilli Rest House as well as the UWA offices in the Murchison Falls National Park and from there he asked the government to allocate more finances to be used to spread the tsetse flies in the park.

He said that if this problem is not sorted out as quickly as possible, the industry might lose out on a number of tourists who might want to visit the park especially after one of the visitors posted news about the flies attacking them while on their tour and therefore asked the rest of the tourists to avoid the park something that is not good news for the tourism industry.  He said that the only way we can get rid of these flies is through using the aerial spraying method.

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The ministry of Tourism has at long last received that Kanyeihamba report which the ministry has been eagerly waiting to get for now four months which shows the giving the result of the commission of enquiry that has considerably affected the smooth running of the Uganda Wildlife Authority something that eventually influenced other associated bodies as well.

Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu who is the minister for tourism and is strangely blamed by Kanyihamba for committing so many offences told the media yesterday that there will be no action taken on this account until the court has given out all the legal disputes.  There are several people who have had to ask the courts of law to have some sections in the report while others want the whole report condensed he added. The minister also said should any one be caught as among those who misused funds from the world bank under the PAMSU project will be dealt with accordingly however the world bank’s auditor has not yet identified any underperformance in project neither has he shown any phase in the project implementation where the funds have been misallocated like what the Kanyeihambas report indicates.

It was said that this report will be presented in the coming cabinet meeting. Kanyeihamba had his report ready and already in printed by November 02nd 2011 but because of a number of eventualities, it has just been officially presented to the Minister of Tourism two days ago and Prof. Kamuntu  referred to this as fall foul of of terms and conditions by the commissions chairman  however , he agreed that this whole issue is destroying the country’s wildlife sector yet it is hard to , made it impossible to assign UWA another  board of directors since had serious fallout with the Uganda’s tourism industry.

When the Lonely Planet had acknowledged Uganda as their best destination for this year, it is expect that immediately this disgusting saga is ended so that Uganda can go ahead and market its tourism attraction around the world to be able to increase on the number of tourists entering Uganda.

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The Government of Uganda is certain that it will be it is better have all that national parks in the country fenced to control and avoid any more human-wildlife conflicts like the ones that are currently going on in Murchison falls national park. This is therefore why the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) is determined to start on this long-term project of fence off all national parks in the country as a way of controlling the problem that is existing between the human-wildlife clashes.

This project is intended to defend local villages that are close to national parks that are constant under the risk of being attacked by these animals after they run away from the parks and they destroy their food crops and some time evade their homes and scare them out but it is also intended to protect these animals from being poached to get their tasks for sale as well as being killed by angry people after they eat all the crops, they may decide to kill some of them out of anger for revenge.

Mr. Ephraim Kamuntu who is Uganda’s Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage talk about the plan during the opening of the latest driving track from the Te Bito to the Top of the falls located on the northern banks of the Murchison Falls National Park. He is quotated to have said that “the easiest way to get rid of this human-wildlife clash  trenches  have been dug which are deep enough for the animals to jump  to stop them from entering into people’s  gardens to damage their crops and threaten their  lives as well as. But later, all major national parks will be fenced when the required funds have been got and the work will begin from Murchison Park where this problem is so severe and local people are complaining all the time about the animal attacks.”

The idea of fencing off national parks in the region started from Kenya after the Aberdare National Park was fenced off by a private enterprise supported by Rhino Ark. Kenya Wildlife Services followed the trend and fenced  off Mt Kenya National Park in 2011 a project they  spend on $12m  .

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There are several crops owned by people from more than 1 000homesteads that were ruined by elephants and other wild animals after they escaped from the biggest national game reserve and Murchison Falls National Park. The rest of the animals included the buffaloes, giraffes and lions which currently a big problem to the people who are living around these national parks however  their current behavior is because of the on going Tullow oil drilling within the region

The chairman of Nwoya District Patrick Oryema who has got a portion of the park in this region said that the local residents lost a lot of food and currently do not have what to feed on and their families because the elephants shattered several acres of farmlands and he most destroyed crops include rice, cassava and sorghum. He also added that they manage to destroy a large area because a mature elephant can consume about 300 kilogrammes of food in day.

The Local residents said that there are strong lights and a lot of noise produced by those huge machines which agitates wildlife within the park and because of this, the Nwoya district leader promised to organize people within his district to protest in the capital if the responsible people do not show any concern about the on going situation within a short time.

Demonstration threats

Patrick Oryema said he will have to take the residents to a parliament in Kampala and stage their demonstration over there however Semei Okwi a government official in the region aid that they will soon get used to the noise and they will stop causing chaos in the region once they are used.  He added that elephants are smart and very soon will know that the noise is not hazardous to their lives and there after will not be running a way from the park to got destroy people’s crops any more.

However he disprove all claims animals do run to these villages because of the fact that there is oil drilling activity that is going on the same region because the animals invasion come first before the oil drilling begun and because of this complaint raised, the officials have finally got a solution to this problem.

Andrew Seguya the Uganda Wildlife Authority Executive director said that trenches are being dug around the game park to which the elephants can jump to prevent them from escaping from the park to enter people’s villages and destroy their crops. This is Africa’s seventh biggest park and there are about 1400 elephants, thousands of buffaloes, almost 200 lions and very many other wild species and according to records, over 60,000 tourists visited this national park.

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According to the information got during the night from Malaysia indicate that the Malaysian customs authorities take possession of yet another half ton of blood ivory yesterday while on their daily duties of scrutinizing all the goods loaded in container, this time heading to Malaysia and not on move to China as the story was in the most recent cargo confiscated.

There was lots of illegal ivory that was caught last year and not only in Malaysia but from almost all parts especially from the Far and South East parts which is a result of the quick economic recovery in China which prompted   the high demand for the extraordinary white gold amongst the nouvelle riche who want to have complicated carvings to show off not minding about the fact that they are destroying Africa’s wildlife.

There were more than 6 tons of illegal ivory that was confiscated by the Malaysian authorities in just three key search and a fight to protect the world’s wildlife as well as preservation NGO TRAFFIC declared 2011 as the most difficult year in the lives of elephant where by there has been more than 23 tons seize rs around the world and therefore about 2.500 elephants were killed in that year.

The year earlier, there was about 10 tons that were apprehended something that indicates serious dangerous the situation is becoming thus the need to improve on the security especially on the Airports especially in Africa and Asia  with China being the major importing China country and therefore  increasing  poaching for ivory and rhino horn.

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There has been a huge impact on the tourism industry resulting from the on going economic crisis around the world which has led to a decline in the number of foreign tourists who are coming into the country for the holiday by 15% compared to the records of booking s for the previous year.  This crisis has tremendously affected so many of Kenyan’s potential markets like Italy but the led to an increase in the number of domestic tourists  increased more than 20% and reached 100% when compared to previous year  where majority of the local hotels were fully  booked by the local residents from  Nairobi, Mombasa and many other parts of upcountry.

According to the reports from the tourism fraternity, it is showed clearly that the number of arrivals from foreign countries was about 85% reducing from 100% as it has always been since 10 December.  An Italian Consulate based in Malindi Roberto Marci said while addressing the Star that the prevailing condition was too bad in the past when the arrivals were between 60% and 65% and only got better 10 days back.

Macri said on phone while at a resort town that the tourism industry is at medium level since the number of visitors had suddenly dropped considering the records from the previous year they had 100% of the hotels fully booked at around the same period of time. He added that the international market operating at medium levels of 85 per cent yet used to be at 100 per cent and had just improved a few days like 10 days from the 60 % which was too low for the sector.

The Consulate said that there is only one person from Italy who has visited the resort town and that is non other than the famous Billionaire Flavio Briatore as well as H.E. Madame P. Imperiale the ambassador to Italy. Kenya managed to get a sum of Sh73.6 billion shillings from the tourism industry in 2010 which is Sh26.4 billion below the Sh100 billion target income forecast by players.  The tourists coming in by air and sea is 1.1 million this year 2011 leading to a positive change of 15.1 % from 952, 481 visitors of 2009 though was still below their target of 1.2 million visitors they had expected.

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The Civil society faction would like the GSU police officers who were dropped in the Masai Mara game reserve the previous month under the pretext of ensuring the safety of the tourists from being hurt by the angry protestors who are not in favor of the use of smart card revenue collection system at the Mara gates.

The demonstrators who have been throwing all tourists out of the reserve claim the Narok County Council did not even discuss with them the matter before setting up the system. The civil society faction also requests the police to pullout fictitious story they have against the protesters who had been accused of participating in the protests. There are also community leaders who have asked to have the electronic ticketing machines uninstalled and first discuss with all stakeholders.

Ken Wafula chair person National Council of NGOs in Kenya said that the council was given a grace period of two weeks to sort out the disagreement over this system failure to do so, they will  organize local people and urge them to keep the fire burning.

He was quoted saying, “We asked the GSU officers be taken out of the park and also have a civil discussion with the residents and other responsible bodies about the system sort that all the problems going on can end immediately”. The NGO council referred to this contract between Narok County Council and Equity Bank undemocratic.

Mr Wafula said that it is a very goo idea to improve on the revenue by installation of electronic systems could be appropriate but see up to it the it does not make others lives un.

He said they need to have the contract above board and that means they do not need to mistreat any Kenyan resident like they have been arresting and trying them in court for no reason while the police was stopping them from airing out their concerns.

Mr Wafula is also the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy executive director, he said that Article 10 (2) (a) of the Constitution stresses people’s involvement in decisions in matters that affect them. The revenue will be collected from the residents and so the Constitution gives all supreme power to the people to be consulted before making any decision.

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According to the statistics presented on Tuesday, the rate at which the elephants are decreasing in two wildlife sanctuaries in Tanzania is almost 42% in a period of three years due to the fact that there is a high rate of poaching resulting from the demand for their tusks. There was a general counting of elephants done the east African country’s wildlife authority, Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute as a government measurement to preserve wildlife in two parks which included the Selous Game Reserve and Mikumi National Park  and the results indicated that the  numbers of elephants  had fall from 74 900 in 2006 to 43 552 in 2009.

The hasty fall impelled President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania to order his cabinet to carry out an investigation as mentioned by his office last Tuesday. Conservation fraternity said that Tanzania has a total number of elephant of approximate 110 000 to 140 00 which makes it one of the biggest sanctuaries that Africa has got. Unfortunately Tanzania and Kenya have faced the many poaching related cases in the latest years where so many elephants have been killed as well as rhinos to get tusks and horns which are on demand in Asia.

The TRAFFIC conservation group that trails patterns in wildlife trading stated last week that in the year 2011there have been several cases where ivory has been captured from illegal exporters. Therefore the course for the elephant poaching in Africa is to get the tusks that are highly demanded in Asia to make jewelry and ornaments. Elephants which is the largest land mammals in the whole world, aside from being killed every now and then, they are also being forced to migrate from one location to another in many part of the world due to human activities, pollution and climate change. The conservationists say that the number has reduced to 470 000 – 685 000 from millions in the past decades.

Kikwete also asked the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute to inspect the vanishing of the exceptional Roosevelt’s sable antelope from national parks, and to find means of finding another and take to any of the parks. The previous Convention on International Trade in those that are in danger of extinction(CITES) in 2007 accepted to a nine-year suspension on the export of ivory following the 105 tons of elephant ivory that were sold from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe to China and Japan.

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The first round statistics compiled during the weekend got from normally knowledgeable sources showed that the tourism sector has already surpassed coffee and tea growing sector which has been the major source of to Rwanda’s foreign exchange but now tourism is and it is the very year that Rwanda has got the highest number of visitors ever.

This is resulting from the enlarged communication set-up and improved number of flight by the Rwanda Air which is the national airline, for example there are 6 flights to Dubai in week, there are those heading to Kigali by KLM, and some from Amsterdam to Rwanda having a short stop over in Entebbe / Uganda 5 times in a week. The increases in the flight has enabled so many tourists to travel from different parts of the world and come visit the country popularly known as the land of a thousand hills.

More to that is the fact that the tourism agents have got very good customer care and marketing ability by a combination of private and public sector supporter.  They always make it appoint to attend all important international tourism trade exhibitions and become members of the International Council of Tourism Partners  hence another reason for  Rwanda’s amazing success in the field.  The additional accommodation facilities in the capital city Kigali and in the major upcountry places also played an important role this time where by they helped to reduce on the stress like the case was the preceding years when the hotels were all occupied and the visitors had no where to sleep and therefore had to cancel their trips to Rwanda and therefore the country then missed out on large amount of money due to large of accommodation.

The Initial target is being able to earn about US Dollars 216 million but hopefully it has been surpassed in 2011 since the results have not yet been compiled. The Conference tourism and new tourism attractions like the bird trails done out of the parks and the Congo Nile Trail have also add value to the activities done and CNT will be in action in 2012 during the personal relations campaign. Well done to the all stake holders in the Rwanda tourism sectors.

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