Murchison Falls: A splash of splendour

The electrifying Murchison Falls remain visually familiar to movie freaks, since it featured in the African Queen in which Toro Kingdom Princess Elizabeth Bagaya starred.
 It is part of one of the largest and oldest national parks in the country - the Murchison Falls conservation area.

 It comprises Murchison Falls National Park, Bugungu Wildlife Reserve and Karuma Wildlife Reserve.

 British explorer Sir Samuel Baker named it Murchison, after the president of the Royal Geographical Society. Baker’s grandson was recently in the area retracing his ancestor’s footsteps.

It is sliced in half by the Victoria Nile, which squeezes through a narrow six-metre gorge to pour out in the spectacular frothing waterfalls.

Murchison is home to lions, giraffe, chimpanzees, hippos and more than 450 species of birds. Safaris can be enjoyed by boat, car, on foot or traditional safari jeep. The park is open all year round.

Sights and sounds

In the northern sector of the park, the grasslands are dotted with herds of elephants, giraffes, buffalos, and warthogs. Lions are regularly sighted as well as the elusive leopard.
 
The Nile itself is packed with hippos and crocodiles. The bird life is also spectacular, including the shoebill stork.
 
Chimpanzees live in the south-eastern part of the park in Budongo Forest. They can be tracked at Kaniyo Pabidi site and Busingiro in the Budongo Forest Reserve. But most of all, there is the Murchison and Karuma Falls. 

Activities
 
Most visitors come to Murchison Falls on safari, possibly eyeing the Big 5, birds or chimpanzees. Visitors can also take a boat ride to hear and see the force and beauty of the Murchison Falls. Take a camera and pair of lenses to zoom in on the lazy hippos and crocodiles having a sun bath.

  Uganda Wildlife Authority operates three boats namely the Shoe Bill, Kiboko and Mamba for the launch trips, while others are operated by private firms.

There are angling adventures to see who can catch the biggest Nile Perch, which can weigh as much as 80kg. Others include Tiger Fish and Catfish. The annual Murchison Falls Invitational Fishing Tournament is one of the most popular events in the tourism calendar.

Accommodation
 
There are several accommodation facilities around the park, from the award-winning five-star Chobe Safari Lodge, the luxury Paraa Safari Lodge, to the Nile Safari Camp along the Nile River bank.

 One can stay at modest cottages at Sambiya River Lodge or opt for budget bandas or tents at the Red Chilli Hideaway Camp. Uganda Wildlife Authority also operates bandas, a bar and restaurant inside the park. There are other camping sites near Paraa Rest camp, Rabongo Forest next to Wariongo River.

Take along sun glasses, a baseball cap, insect repellents, water and keep your eyes open. 
Entrance for East African adults is sh10,000 and sh5,000 for children under 15. School children pay sh2500. Foreign non-residents pay $35, while children pay $20.

 Foreign residents in East Africa pay $25 for adults and $10 for children. 
Activities within the park, such as game drives, boat ride, nature walk and ferry crossing are paid for separately from the entry fee.

HOW TO GET THERE

The journey to Murchison Falls National Park is a five-hour drive from Kampala. One can rent a car, drive their own or opt for a guided all-package tour.
 
Some would enjoy the scenic route from Kampala via Budongo Forest and the Rift Valley escarpment. Public transport is available from Masindi to the Paraa Park headquarters.
 
It is possible to go by air from Entebbe Airport to Pakuba Airfield, 19km northwest of Paraa and Bugungu airfield, 13km south of the park headquarters. Flights can also be chartered from Kajjansi Airfield.
 
You can also access it from the north, via Chobe Gate, near Karuma Falls and Tangi Gate, near Pakwach, and Wangkwar Gate near Purongo.

Rwanda’s State House now turned into major museum and leisure centre

The palace that used to house former Rwandan presidents Juvénal Habyarimana and Pasteur Bizimungu. It is now a tourist site

The former state house, which last housed Bizimungu, has a rich history and a magnificent architecture; the wreckage of Juvenal Habyarimana’s crash plane, his gifts and beautiful sites, make it worth a place visit. Sunday Monitor’s Henry Lubega visited the museum.

Leisurely pacing the gate is a lone gate man armed with a stick. Beyond the gate on the paved walkthrough are A4 size papers with the couple’s names littering the ground and giving directions to the wedding reception.

Guests stream in to attend different wedding receptions scattered across the more than two-acre compound. At the extreme end of the paved walk through is a huge one-storeyed building with fading tiles. At one end of the compound is another lone security man in the watch tower, blankly facing the wreckage of the former presidential crash jet.

Welcome to the former fortified RwandaState House in Kanombe, a suburb of Rwanda’s capital Kigali, now turned into a museum and wedding reception venue.
Located four kilometres from the country’s Kigali international airport, formerly known as Kayibanda International Airport, the museum finds itself in a heavily-militarised zone with very few ordinary civilian homes.

A short distance to the former State House away from the airport is the military police headquarters, a military hospital, and a military high court. Construction of the State House, which was home to two of Rwanda’s former presidents, started in 1976 on the orders of Juvénal Habyarimana (March 8, 1937 – April 6, 1994) who became president through a military coup in 1973 when he deposed his cousin Gregoire Kayibanda, the country’s first president.

At the main entrance, one looks for security signs synonymous with presidential residencies but none is in sight, save for the lone guard wielding a baton-like stick, waiting to direct you to the reception. Here, a tall slender young girl dressed in the Kinyarawanda traditional wear is ready to welcome you and take you through the do’s and don’t’s. This include not taking pictures while inside the museum palace, and a brief history of the former state house.

Fee
After a payment of 1000 Rwanda Francs (about Shs5,000), you are ushered into the main compound void of any signs of the military expected at a residence of a president. All that is left there are the empty guard posts and watch towers save for one facing the wreckage of the former presidential jet. The last president to stay there was Pasteur Bizimungu (born 1950) who was the fifth president of Rwanda, holding office from July 19, 1994 until March 23, 2000 and in 2008, the government turned it into a museum.

From outside, the place looks like a single-storeyed house, but it’s not until you are inside that you realise that it’s a double storeyed one. Habyarimana is said to have been so much obsessed with the colour white. This explains why from the waiting room to his public office on the ground floor up to his private office on the top floor, everything is painted white, save for a few changes that were made by his successor, Bizimungu.

All presidents save for Paul Kagame and Théodore Sindikubwabo, the country’s interim president during the genocide period, never used the former State House.

Rare view
The rear side of the house serves as the entrance to the public office with the King Louis sofa set in the waiting room. Like the walls, the chairs are white as well. The office was changed by Bizimungu to give it different chairs and a table top which is brown.

The house has three sitting rooms on the ground floor, one for the president, the children and the First Lady. Ms (Me) Habyarimana, as she was popularly, known had her own sitting room in which she used to host her guests on the eastern side of the house facing the swimming pool. Save for the First Lady’s furniture in the house, the other two have had face-lifts and changes in terms of furnishing.

The stair case to the first floor where the bedrooms are, has got security sensors, whose switch was only switched on once the president and his family were in their bedrooms. As soon as one stepped on the stairs, the president would know and on which stair the person was.

The first floor houses three bedrooms, the master bedrooms, the boys and the girls bedroom. The master bedroom still has Bizimungu’s kingsize bed, a small dressing table and a bedside stool which was used by Habyarimana. The glass bedside table has a white edge with elephant legs as its stands. From the master bedroom, one can access the huge balcony which could be mistaken for a lawn tennis court.

Eastern wing
On the extreme eastern wing of the house on the first floor is the TV room. It’s from here that one of the secret exit for the president was located. On one wall with wooden decorations in the middle is the TV stand; on the right hand side is the remote controlled door to the secret entrance to the third floor while on the extreme left is a gun chamber also remote controlled.
On the third floor, which cannot be seen from the outside, is the president’s gym, his special private office, a room for his presents from other heads of state or groups of people, and the few remaining gifts include art pieces and sculptures.

Next to the gift room is the president’s chapel. The chapel has got two entrances from inside and another on the balcony. The chaplain was using the balcony entrance which he could only access by use of the president’s special exit. The reason being that on the extreme end opposite the president’s private office was a special room for the president’s witchdoctor. 
The floor also housed the First Lady and children’s salon. Just adjacent to the salon is the children’s study room.

In the basement of the house on the eastern wing is the president’s club. This is where he would go dancing whenever he felt like. It is fitted with a bar and some in-built seats. It’s not a huge dancing floor but it can accommodate up to 30 people.

By Bruce Amp

Tourism development levy to raise sh23b

Water rafting at Bujagali in Jinja

Tourism sector players have welcomed plans for the operation of a tourism development levy to close a funding gap in the sector.

The sector will also remit Pay-As-You-Earn taxes to the Government.

Tourism is Uganda’s top foreign exchange earner, bringing in $800m (about sh2trillion) annually ahead of coffee at $500m (about sh1.3trillion). Despite this, the sector has been constrained by low budgetary allocations.

Herbert Byaruhanga of the Uganda Safari Guides Association (USAGA) said the association will collect and remit Pay-As-You-Earn taxes to the Government in the next financial year.

“We shall start to remit taxes to the Government at the beginning of this financial year to support its efforts to finance this sector,” he said during a stakeholders meeting the Uganda Museum recently.

Byaruhanga said it does not make sense to demand financial support from the Government when the sector is not making any financial contribution to the Treasury.

A tourismdevelopment levy on sector players will raise $9m (about sh23b) to market the country internationally and improve strategic infrastructure.

Uganda spends about $25,580 on marketing its tourism potential, compared to $23m by Kenya, $10m by Tanzania and $5m by Rwanda annually.

The Uganda TourismBoard is faced with a sh17b funding shortfall, according to a strategic sector development plan.

The national budget framework 2013/14 stated that 40km of tourism roads will be rehabilitated and sh10b will be set aside to rehabilitate the Kasese Aerodrome to international airport standards.

Tourist arrivals increased 17% to 945,899 in 2010, from 806,658 in 2009. There was a 25% increase in the number of visitors to national parks, from 151,818 in 2009 to 190,112 in 2010.

Close to 209,000 visitors visited Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC), of which 95% were Ugandans.

The national budget framework 2013/14 notes that tourism expenditure in the country increased from $564m in 2009 to $662m in 2010, reflecting a 14% increase.

By Bruce Amp

Excitement as Rhino is born in Nakasongola

Uhuru, the newly-born baby rhino and its mother at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary

Restock. The baby rhino is part of efforts aimed at restocking the animals in national parks and boosting tourism.

Conservationists, environment and wildlife enthusiasts received the news of the birth of a new female rhino at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary with excitement at the weekend, saying it will offer an opportunity for tourists to see the ‘Big Five’ animals.

These include elephants, lions, buffaloes, rhinos and leopards. The birth of the rhino is a boost to the restocking of the animals that were declared extinct in 1983 in the country.

The management of Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, where the animals stay, broke the news of the birth of the baby rhino named Uhuru, a Swahili word meaning independence.

Seven healthy babies have been born since June 2009, according to the management, bringing the current number in the sanctuary to 13. “This will not only offer an opportunity for tourists on safari to experience the Big Five in Uganda but also trek these magnificent mega herbivores,” Ms Angie Genade, the executive director of the Rhino Fund Uganda, an NGO that oversees the multiplication of the animals, said.

Ms Genade said the new baby was born to Nandi, a female rhino donated by Disney Animal Kingdom and Taleo a male rhino imported from Solio Ranch in Kenya. The baby rhino is in good health. Ms Genade said the Rhino Introduction Programme plans to release the newly-born animals back into the country’s national parks.

Poaching
“Looking at the current African Rhino Poaching statistics with average of three rhinos being poached daily, it is clear that there should always be a sustainable breeding stock in a safe environment,” she added.

Ms Genade said if the breeding stock reaches a suitable size, excess rhinos will be released into national parks but sustainable breeding stocks will remain on the sanctuary for security and genetic reasons. She said national parks must be safe from poaching and prepared to receive these rhinos. She said the organisation is expecting the two adult females to give birth in December 2013 and March 2014 respectively.