Uganda’s game rangers are said to be crossing over to Rwanda’s better paying tourism ranks that enjoy full government backing. At least more than 10 people are said to have left Bwindi Impenetrable Forest over the last six months and crossed to Rwanda, says a tourism official who did not want to be named for fear of being blacklisted by the tourism authority.
“I was last there six months ago, recently when I went back I discovered that 10 people had left. They had got jobs in Rwanda and more wanted to leave,” said the source. Bwindi is one of Uganda’s most lucrative game parks.
The source added that “Most of them (game rangers) told me that they were unhappy with their working conditions. They tell me none of them gets more than Shs270,000 per month yet each of the tourists spends over $1,000 per visit and these are the people they take around,” she said.
But Lilian Nsubuga, the spokesperson for Uganda Wildlife Authority, said nothing of the sort is happening. “It is not true that people are leaving for another country where the gorillas are even fewer than those in Uganda. They have a lot of work to do here. We pay them the same as in Rwanda. There is no need for them to go there as if there is nothing for them to do here,” she said.
If, indeed there is such an exodus, then it is largely going unnoticed among the public. If true, it has the potential of becoming an economic dilemma and could undermine the growth of Uganda’s tourism sector.
This is because game rangers, who remain way below the pecking order in the tourism industry, play perhaps the most important role in ensuring that tourists have a memorable time and are safe from any harm. Uganda does not have enough game rangers.
The ones that are there are still ill-equiped, although they have enough experience to handle the job well. Losing any of the few rangers comes as a blow to the industry.
That these game rangers’ preferred destination is Rwanda – a country with a shattered history, but now with one of Africa’s most promising future – is bound to intensify the competition with Uganda.
Both Uganda and Rwanda have over the last decade competed on almost every front, and are always compared in more ways than one. Be it football, war, or the economy, Rwanda and Uganda have been tussling it out over the last 10 years.
Then again, gorillas are dear to both countries. The world over, gorillas are found in only three countries; Uganda, Rwanda, and the DR. Congo. Uganda is said to have half the population of this rare specie.
Rwanda continues to devise means of how to eat into Uganda’s market where it is said gorilla permits bring in the largest amount of tourism revenue, and it is believed the country is paying a lot of attention to attract the gorillas into its wild.
The exodus of Uganda’s game rangers is bound to leave Uganda’s authorities with a harder task to keep the industry in order. Heading to Rwanda is yet again another harsh reminder of Uganda government’s reluctance to support a sector, which is the country’s second largest export earner and fetched about $500 million in revenue in 2008.
Uganda’s tourism industry received Shs6 billion (about $3.3 million) in budget allocations this financial year despite asking for Shs46 billion. By contrast, Rwanda has spent ten times more - about $30 million - on tourism this financial year, according to the Rwanda Tourism Board website.
The same website notes that the country received 980,577 visitors, higher than Uganda’s roughly 800,000. Although Uganda managed to get more revenue.
For Rwanda, the script cannot get any better. Before the country slumped into the 1994 chaos, where close to a million people died in that infamous genocide, and after, Uganda was the host of many Rwandese. Many Rwandese, like President Paul Kagame himself served in different government institutions in Uganda.
This offered the Rwandese an opportunity to learn the strengths and weaknesses of almost the entire government apparatus.
Therefore it did not come as a surprise that when it came to appointing the head of the Rwanda’s Tourism Board, the country turned to someone who had a deeper understanding of Uganda’s economy and still maintained contacts, Rosette Rugambwa.
Rugambwa is said to be behind Rwanda’s success at such international tourism exhitibions like the ITB Berlin, which brings together more than 130 countries.
Rwanda has been one of Africa’s best performers, with Uganda struggling to make any meaningful impact. All this is said to be down to Rwanda government’s backing, both moral and financial support.
On the other hand, tourism operators in Uganda are left complaining. Maureen Tumusiime, an official of Friends of Nature Tour and Travel Company, says many operators who transport tourists to see gorillas prefer to cut costs by using Rwanda where the road is tarmacked right up to the Virunga Park, instead of risking the muddy terrain on the Uganda side.
She says the Kenyan operators, who are the biggest players in this sector, prefer to work with operators in Rwanda than Uganda. “They know that a tourist will be terribly upset and unlikely to recommend the same trip to a friend if they take 9 hours on a trip that is meant to last 7 hours,” she said.
Amos Wekesa of Great Lakes Safaris agrees with Tumusiime and says bookings to Bwindi have been dropping over the last 16 months ever since Rwanda embarked on serious investment in tourism. “We used to make up to 20 bookings a month, now we have dropped to one a month or none,” he said.
The tourists also complain about the difficulty in getting gorilla permits. In her defence, Lillian Nsubuga accuses the Ugandan tour companies of speculation. “They buy tracking permits in advance even when they have no tourists and then hope to cash in when they get them, yet we have a limited number of permits,” she said.
Written by Moses Talemwa.
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