50 years of Independence !!!!!!!!

The colours of the national flag Black, Yellow Red are seen everywhere in supermarkets, clock towers at the city round about, street lights and at trade shows as people host festivals, carnivals, jazz safaris, live performances and barbeques. It’s the excitement of the 50 years of independence in Uganda. This year is very exceptional and Uganda has quite a number of things to celebrate.

We gained a gold medal after 40 years of drought since 1972. Who knew that a small country in East Africa would not leave the 2012 Olympic Games in London empty handed! Most people were expecting all the medals to go to Kenya but we also had our chance.

 Finally we can also say the war in Gulu that lasted about 25 years finally came to an end and many people are settling back in their communities.  The people in Gulu still struggle with the scars but at least now they can try to rebuild their lives with the hope that Kony will be caught some day.

We can say that there is free Universal Primary Education and Universal Secondary Education which has helped many children to get a chance to go to school. This has its many challenges but we can be certain that there is a move to see that every individual in this country can access education.

I could go on about the many things that have changed but specifically in Tourism, a lot has happened. Tourism started off well after Uganda got its independence in 1962. 1971 was the peak year and Uganda received over 85000 tourists coming into the country and tourism became the third highest foreign exchange earner after coffee and cotton. Later on the tourism sector started going down and we had less people coming in the country especially during the late 1970s and early 1980s because of political instability and also because of the rule of Idi Amin. After 1986 when President Museveni took over power, the economy started to stabilize again although there were still challenges with various rebel groups like the LRA who made it impossible to put up sustainable infrastructure like hotels and roads because they kept on looting villages and towns and terrorizing people. 

The tourists started coming in slowly by slowly but very few went to places like Kidepo National Park and Murchison Falls (formerly known as Kabalega National Park) because they feared the rebels.  When the government realized the role of the tourism sector in economic development and how much important it was then the government assigned high priority to restoring the tourism sector. In February 1988, ministry officials announced a plan to build four new hotels worth US$120 million as part of a barter trade agreement with Italy. The Italian company Viginter agreed to construct the 200-room hotels at Masaka, Fort Portal, Jinja, and Mbale. International tourist arrivals gradually increased, from about 32,000 in 1986 to more than 40,000 in each of the next two years. Tourism earned roughly US$4.2 million in 1988.

Today we can say that tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors in the country, at 50 years of Independence, we are excited to have been announced the best destination in 2012 by lonely planet. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/uganda/travel-tips-and-articles/76856  We are proud that we  have Bwindi as one of the National parks of the world with the only existing Mountain Gorillas, Ishasha with the tree climbing Lions, Queen Elizabeth with the many elephants and crater lakes, Kibale with its many cunning species of primates, Rwenzori Mountain with its snow capped peak Margherita, Murchison Falls with its captivating falls, enchanting giraffes and entertaining crocodiles not forgetting Lake Mburo and its graceful zebras and antelopes, the list is endless and that is just a sneak peak of what Uganda has to offer.  So let us celebrate 50 years of a country that has come so far. We may still have a flaws but it does not stop us from being excited about how far we have come. You can always celebrate with us as we mark 50 years of Independence.