Torrential rains pound Mauritius among reports of up to 8 dead

TORRENTIAL RAINS CAUSE CHAOS ON MAURITIUS AND CLAIM AT LEAST 8 LIVES Reports coming in from Port Louis, the capital city of Mauritius, speak of devastating rains sweeping across the island, causing deaths and widespread destruction, besides being the reason for multiple accidents, some causing serious injuries to drivers and passenger, one of them involving […]

EAWST responds to Born Free Foundation allegations

As promised, after giving BFF the opportunity to voice their issues over the Whale Shark Project at Mombasa’s south coast, here is an initial response by Volker Bassen to counter some of these allegations, with undoubtedly more to follow. Readers can and should make up their mind based on facts and NOT on mere allegations […]

UHOA gets new Executive Director after Sekandi retires from position

UGANDA HOTEL OWNERS ASSOCIATION GETS NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Long serving Executive Director of the Uganda Hotel Owners Association, Mr. Ishmael Sekandi, has stepped down and was last Tuesday formally replaced by Mr. Sam Balagadde, introduced to invited guests by the chairman of UHOA, Mr. Ibrahim Muwanga Kibirige, owner of the Hotel Africana in Kampala. Sekandi, […]

Kenya’s Supreme Court declares presidential election results as valid

KENYA’S TOURISM GURUS RELIEVED OVER SUPREME COURT RULING Kenya’s tourism industry was swift to welcome the decision of the Supreme Court, which delivered the verdict of ‘Validly elected’ while turning down the applications of the petitioners to overturn the declaration of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, which had named Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto […]

Hell’s Gate National Park claims two more lives

HELL’S GATE NATIONAL PARK CLAIMS TWO MORE VICTIMS Hell’s Gate National Park, one of Kenya’s most popular parks for adventure tourism and hiking, has once again lived up to its name as two more Kenyans on a weekend hike up Mt. Longonot lost their lives. Last year it was a team of church youths on […]

Happy Easter Holidays – (Early) Weekly roundup of news from Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean islands, First edition April 2013

AVIATION, TOURISM AND CONSERVATION NEWS from Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean islands. A weekly roundup of breaking news, reports, travel stories and opinions by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang H. Thome You can get your daily breaking news updates instantly via Twitter by following @whthome, join me on www.facebook.com/WolfgangHThome where the articles also ‘cross load’ or […]

AURIC Air announces more scheduled destinations across Tanzania’s parks and islands

AURIC AIR ADDS MORE SCHEDULED SERVICES TO PARKS AND ISLANDS AURIC Air has announced that they will significantly increase their scheduled flights across Tanzania from June onwards to include services to various islands off the mainland but also to more national parks, pushing overall destinations to 18 in every corner of the country. The airline, […]

RwandAir announces Douala and Juba as their next destinations

RWANDAIR SET FOR JUBA AND DOUALA LAUNCH After already announcing Accra as their next destination in their current inflight magazine INZOZI, has RwandAir, the national carrier of Rwanda and one of Africa’s fastest growing airlines, now announced the launch of direct flights from Kigali to two additional new destinations. Douala and Juba will be joining […]

Kenya Airways launching Abu Dhabi flights on July 01

KENYA AIRWAYS PREPARES TO LAUNCH ABU DHABI FLIGHTS IN JULY Kenya Airways has now confirmed that they will commence flights to Abu Dhabi, initially three times a week, using a two class B737-800NG. KQ 316 will be leaving at 19.25 hrs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to reach Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United […]

Mwazo’s departure brings new hope to Kenya’s tourism industry

‘I DID MY BEST’ SAYS MWAZO AS HE LEAVES TOURISM ‘And your best was not good enough, not nearly good enough’ roared a regular source from Nairobi’s tourism circles back via an email to this correspondent, commenting on the final press conference held by hapless tourism minister Dan Mwazo, who never could fill the shoes […]

Flooding of key road impacts on safaris to the Northern circuit in Tanzania

TORRENTIAL RAINS IMPACT ON SAFARIS ACROSS TANZANIA’S NORTHERN CIRCUIT Reports reaching from Arusha speak of torrential rains cutting a vital road link to the Northern safari circuit near the town of Karatu, where the Kirurumo River flooded, broke its banks and severely damaged a bridge, effectively disrupting road traffic for residents and tourists. The main […]

Raid on Malindi casino leaves at least 6 thugs dead

MASS ATTACK ON MALINDI CASINO LEAVES 8 DEAD, SEVERAL INJURED Suspected members of the banned MRC, a coastal terrorist group seeking to break away from the Republic of Kenya and form their own radical Islamic state, attacked an Italian owned casino last night in the wee hours. According to a source in Malindi were six […]

Akagera gets new visitor centre

NEW TENTED CAMP AND VISITOR CENTRE OPENS IN AKAGERA NATIONAL PARK African Parks has now formally opened a new visitor centre in the heart of the Akagera National Park, which they manage in a joint venture with the Rwanda Development Board’s Tourism and Conservation Department. Located along the 7 tent Rusizi Safari Lodge the new […]

Seychelles CAA hosts NAFISAT meeting

SEYCHELLES HOSTS AFRICAN AIR NAVIGATION MEETING The Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority co-hosted, for the first time ever, a meeting of NAFISAT, short for Northern Africa and Indian Ocean communications by Satellite grouping, which brings together a number of countries from Africa and the Middle East. Representatives from Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Kenya, Libya, Saudi Arabia, […]

FastJet manager of UK origin in court over allegedly abusing Tanzanian employee

FASTJET SENIOR MANAGER IN COURT OVER ABUSIVE LANGUAGE Information received from a regular aviation source in Dar es Salaam speaks of more woes on the ground for FastJet when one of their managers was arrested and produced in court over the alleged use of abusive language against a Tanzanian employee. UK citizen Emma Donovan, Manager […]

Kenyans react with anger over latest US Embassy anti travel advisory

KENYANS RESPONSE TO NEW US ANTI TRAVEL ADVISORY CAME SWIFT AND BRUTAL The reaction to the latest anti travel advisory by the US mission in Nairobi, advising their nationals to exercise maximum care and caution ahead of the expected ruling of the Supreme Court about the election petition swiftly brought about reactions, and being known […]

RwandAir expects their two new B737-700NG’s to arrive the week after Easter

RWANDAIR PREPARES FOR BOEING FLEET UPGRADE Usually well informed sources from Kigali have confirmed that the replacements for the two B737-500 aircraft on lease to RwandAir will start arriving in Rwanda within the space of the next two weeks already. The two ageing Boeings will be substituted by two relatively new B737-700NG, coming from European […]

Rwanda exploiting ‘green’ geothermal energy sources

RWANDA SET FOR GEOTHERMAL ENERGY Rwanda’s EnergyWater and Sanitation Authority has confirmed that drilling on the southern slope of the Karisimbi volcano near Musanze will start in mid April, setting the stage to begin exploiting sustainable energy sources through heat exchangers. Fast economic growth and a progressive rollout of access to electricity into the rural […]

New technology allows travel agency clients to book and still enjoy full service back up

TRAVELSHOPPE IN NAIROBI OFFERS CLIENTS NOVEL WAYS OF BOOKING FLIGHTS Travelshoppe in Nairobi reportedly is the first travel agent in Kenya, if not East Africa, to offer their clients online flight booking facilities with full agency support and back up. Through the new technology clients can compare flights and prices for their destination through the […]

Kagesheki insists that Loliondo will be split in the interest of conservation

KAGESHEKI FIRM ON SPLITTING THE LOLIONDO ‘CONTROLLED GAME AREA’ No nonsense Natural Resources and Tourism Minister Amb. Khamis Kagesheki was blunt in his response to objections over his plans to split the Loliondo game area into two major parts, when he dismissed threats by local politicians to resign as he retorted: ‘If the civic leaders […]

Ol Pejeta loses another black rhino / Graphic images involved!

Another Black Rhino Loses Its Life to Poaching (Nanyuki, Kenya). As the triennial Conference of Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) drew to a close last week in Bangkok, and after conservationists all around the world sounded the alarm on rhino poaching, the Ol Pejeta […]

Corporate Social Responsibility programmes a la Sarova and Serena

HOTELS ENGAGE IN COMMUNITY PROJECTS Easter, like Christmas, is for many hotel groups in Kenya a suitable occasion to talk about the community projects they are engaged in across the year, and at times even splash out some hospitality for the beneficiaries, a date with the photographer included of course. Do good and talk about […]

KLM ditches Khartoum amid growing isolation of the regime

KLM PULLS OUT OF KHARTOUM Royal Dutch Airline KLM has announce that effective 31st March this year they will halt flights between Amsterdam and Khartoum, citing unsatisfactory performance of the route. There has been speculation if Khartoum’s harsh economic environment, which saw allocation of foreign exchange to repatriate ticket sales suspended – inspite of existing […]

Booze and bikini tourists told to stay away from Khartoum Sudan

DRINK CAMEL MILK INSTEAD OF ALCOHOL SAYS SUDAN (KHARTOUM) TOURISM MINISTER Khartoum Sudan’s Tourism Minister Mohamed Abdul-Karim Al Had all but told foreign tourists to get lost, when letting show his radical side last week to the fullest as he declared the country off limits for tourists expecting to be served alcohol or wanting to […]

Standard Digital reports Dengue Fever outbreak at Kenya Coast

DENGUE FEVER OUTBREAK REPORTED FROM KENYA COAST (Image courtesy of www.Wikipedia.Org) Health officials are quoted in a local daily newspaper in Kenya, confirming at least 15 cases of Dengue Fever at the Kenya coast, but were swift to point out that the disease was ‘imported’ by travelers carrying the infection before passing it on to […]

About those forests in Tanzania …

The mere mention of Tanzania in a recent article about Mabira Forest, titled ‘Mabira – The silent assault continue’ predictably brought the cyber sewer rats out in the open again, letting fly abuse and worse over how I am an enemy of Tanzania. I did say and stand by it, that illegal logging is as […]