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ON Wednesday 28th of January 2009 ,authorities of Queen Elizabeth National park in Western Uganda with their counterparts from Queen Elizabeth country park in the UK signed an alliance five year memorandum of Understanding at an occasion led by the Deputy British high commissioner Mr. Phillip Mani. IN his speach at Mweya Education Centre, the manager of Queen Elizabeth Conservation area, MR. Tom Okello said that the pact is aimed at promoting and developing the two Parks as tourists sites. The pact stated that the two parks will be exchanging staff and sharing ideas . Mr Mani applauded the existing relationship between the two countries .

By Tanah Hadijah
Uganda safari News

Indiaanticpates to triple trade with Africa in the next five years to come. The business is expected to reach $100b, as it tries to make a foundation of ties in a region where Asian rival China has made tremendous business prosperity.

Notwithstanding an economic slowdown, India is projecting a veer of schemes in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), agriculture, small industry, oil pipelines, mining, chemical industry, power generation and transmission among others.

The government also plans to double credit lines to $5.4b over five years and provide $500m for projects from the “Aid to Africa” budget, Pranab Mukherjee, India’s External Affairs minister said during a India-Africa business summit in New Delhi.

Business leaders and politicians from at least 32 African countries and India vowed this week to improve bilateral trade and relations, which date back to the British colonial period when thousands of Indians were taken to Africa as treaty laborers.

BY Tanah Hadijah
Uganda travel News

A PROTOTYPE car designed by Makerere University students is being exhibited at the World Design Capital in Torino, Italy. The Design Summit invited 55 students studying different disciplines from 21 universities in 11 countries to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop commuter cars.

The eco-friendly and energy proficient model was part of last year’s Reverie Exhibition designs at the workshop room at Torino Museum.

This first model of the vehicle, Vision 200, was partly designed by six Makerere undergraduate engineering students. While building the car in Italy, the students knobbed the ‘nucleus’ of the vehicle.

Steven Ntambi who headed the students team said that they handled the transmission and power-train, which are the basics for the vehicle’s movement. This involves data systemization, battery and the protection system and welding on the body of the vehicle.

Since Makerere University did not have enough money to build a general transportation research centre, Massachusetts Institute of Technology of the USA has taken over the building of the vehicle.

Makerere University represented Africa. Makerere university is housed on one of Kampala’s 7 hills Makerere which is part of the historical tourism attractions.

By Tanah Hadijah
Uganda Travel News

UGANDA’S 1-0 victory over Kenya in the CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup final was Cranes’ first win against their arch-rivals since 1996. The match left every one in awe when the referee ended the match after 90 hours.

Kenya’s Harambee Stars had been dominating the regional soccer ever since they last lost 2-0 to Uganda Cranes in the 1996 CECAFA tournament in Sudan. Of the 14 games played in between, Kenya had won three and drawn 11.

Kenya and Uganda first competed in football in 1926 in a 1-1 Gossage Cup draw in the two-nation Gossage Cup that later turned into the CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup.

Uganda has since played 394 international games, won 157, lost 126 and drawn 111. Of these, most games have been against Kenya, who they have faced 68 times, won 28 times, drawn 22 and lost 18.

Uganda’s most successful soccer result is also against Kenya, a 13-1 win in the Gossage Cup in 1932.

Uganda remains the most popular country in the CECAFA Challenge Cup, with 10 wins compared to Kenya’s five. Uganda’s victory on Tuesday has also seen them post their best ever end of year FIFA/World ranking.

The January rankings place Uganda at 68, going up three places. Uganda’s best ever placing was 66th, in April 1995.

BY Tanah Hadijah
Uganda Travel News

The Nnaabagereka,(Queen of Buganda ) Sylvia Nagginda, who officially opened the camp on Wednesday, that this has been an initiative for Buganda Kingdom to regain its past glory. The cultural institution was put in place to inculcating traditional values among the young generation. In her speech which opening up this institution, Her majesty the queen of Buganda said that the happiness that our ancestors enjoyed were from the home-based training they attained and if Buganda is to shine again , they have to inculcate the same values in the younger generation.

The Nnaabagereka also condemned the increasing incidents of child sacrifice, saying it was a total infringement on children’s fundamental right to life. “It is a pity that many innocent children have been sacrificed and at times by their own parents. This is a bad trend for this country and we pray to God to help us,” she said.

The Ekisakaate 2009, which started last Sunday, had earlier targeted 1,500 children aged between six to 18 years.
But by Wednesday afternoon, only 650 majorities of whom are in Senior Four and Six vacation had registered. The Ekisaakaate is a holiday programme initiated by the Nnaabagereka to teach and instil cultural values in children. Started two years ago, the annual event attracts hundreds of young people aged between nine and 18, and involves both theory and practical instruction.

However, this time round children between six to eight years will also be catered for under the Junior kisaakaate according the event Publicist, Mr Aloysius Matovu Joy. Buganda’s youngest princess Catherine Sangalyambogo is also expected to attend the junior Kisaakaate, according to Mr Matovu. Similar to the olden days, where fences around homesteads were erected with reeds, the venue for the Kisaakaate is fenced off in the same manner.

Children are then housed in the premises, within which they learn about the Ganda tradition and norms, good behavior, house chores like preparing and cooking local foods; digging, and making crafts like mats and baskets, which are synonymous with the Baganda. The Kisaakaate 2009 is held under the theme: “Proud to be African”

Her majesty, Nagginda urged to parents in Buganda to help their children learn and speak their mother tongue before learning other languages. His Highness the King of Buganda Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II is expected to close the camp on January 18.

Culture is an important aspect in Uganda’s tourism.

By Tanah Hadijah
Uganda Travel News

The meeting will take place at the Imperial Royale Hotel is scheduled for January 13.

Zoue Raphael from Ivory Coast, who is in-charge of communication for the forum which was launched by Libyan President Muammar el Gadaffi at his 39th anniversary in 2008 of kings, princes, sultans, sheikhs and customary chiefs, yesterday said the leaders will also discuss traditional problems beleaguering the continent and find solutions to them.

Its head office is in Ivory Coast and its permanent secretary general is King TCHIFFI ZIE Jean Gervais from the Ivory Coast.

A summit of over 200 African kings and traditional leaders bequeathed the title “King of Kings” to Gadaffi during rituals in Benghazi at the end of August.

A Ugandan delegation of traditional leaders was also part of the forum.

The forum’s objective, according to Raphael, is to try and unravel problems where political leaders have failed.

“We want to bring them (traditional leaders) together for unity as proposed by Gadaffi,” he said.

While in Uganda, the traditional leaders w will make up an eastern zone for the forum and also nominate its secretary general.

The forum is made up of five zones, which are the eastern, central, west African, south African and the northern zone.

AS per now, the eastern zone has 16 countries including Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Djibouti, Somalia, Seychelles, Eritrea , among others.

By Tanah Hadijah
Uganda Travel News

Three lions ; one male and two females are suspected to have migrated from Sango Bay, near Lake Victoria to lake Mburo national Park.
The Chief Warden, Lake Mburo Conservation Area, Adonia Bimpora, said one female had a cub. Speaking to The weekly observer one of the New writers in Uganda , Adonia said that this may imply the coming of the lions to this national park after they were wiped out by nomadic pastoralist Bahima in the early 1980s.
Cattle keepers killed all the lions with the hope that the game park would be converted into grazing land for their cattle.
It is also alleged that these lions may have come from Akagera National Park in northern Tanzania given the fact that migration of game between Mburo and Akagera game parks have been recorded in the past.
Besides lions, elephants and giraffes are some of the animals reported extinct in Lake Mburo National Park over the last couple of years.
Adonia added that that the newly arrived lions will be radio-collared with the assistance of a research project and monitored to ensure their safety. He however said that the Uganda Wildlife Authority has initiated an alert curriculum for local communities around the national parks to teach them on the benefits of co-existing with wildlife, particularly the importance of lions to tourism.

According to a researcher attached to Makerere University, Dr. Ludwig Siefart, lions are endangered species in Uganda’s game parks, and there are only few left Queen Elizabeth national park and Murchison Falls national park , yet they have been the back-bone of the country’s tourism for many years before being conquest to legendary mountain gorillas.
He attributed the sharp reduction in the lion population to poachers seeking lion skin for witchcraft purposes and pastoral communities avenging the loss of their cattle to the beasts.
Dr. Ludwig accredited this rapacious behaviour on the part of lions to human encroachment on protected areas, leave-taking small patches of land which are not sufficient for the wildlife to inhabit freely without encroaching on human communities.

By Tanah hadijah
Uganda Travel news

While at celebrations for the Little Sisters of St. Francis in Nkokonjeru parish, Mukono district, where nuns marked their golden and silver jubilee, PRESIDENT Yoweri . K.Museveni re-assured the people of Mukono district that all major roads in the area will be tarmacked. The President explained that inadequate revenue collection delayed the tarmacking of Mukono-Kisoga, Kisoga-Katosi, Kisoga-Nkokonjeru and Nkokonjeru-Buikwe roads.

He however said that given the improvement from sh5b in 1986 to sh4,000b, the roads would be worked on.

He narrated how Sr. Immaculate Kyomukama’s father accommodated him at his home for a night in 1972 as he was smuggling arms from Tanzania. Sr. Kyomukama celebrated 25 years of sisterhood.

He said in 1972 while fighting former president Idi Amin, one night as he travelled from Tanzania on a bicycle with a box of guns, he got stranded.
He went to the home of the sub-county chief where he could get security.

He narrated “I went to the elderly man and told him that night had caught up with me. I don’t want to travel at night. Can I spend the night at your home?”

Museveni said he did not tell the man the truth. “I told him that I was from the Banyankole who live on the Tanzanian side.”

He said the nice old man showed him a room where he slept with his box of arms. The old man, he said, did not search his box and gave him food.

Museveni explained that in 1979 after Amin was overthrown, he went back to the old man and thanked him for accommodating him in 1972 and told him that he was a guerilla.

“That elderly man (the late Katembeya) is the father of Sr. Kyomukama,” Museveni revealed and drew laughter when he added: “Some people entertain angels without knowing who they are.”
He said the two became close friends. But at first, he said, he did not know that the old man had a daughter who was a nun.

“I was very happy to know her. I have come in the place of my brother,” Museveni told the nuns and donated sh5m for the function. Kyomukama is now the principal of Santa Maria Primary teachers College, Nkokonjeru.

By Tanah Hadijah
Uganda travel News