IT WAS SAFETY AND SECURITY FIRST ACROSS EAST AFRICA AS HOLIDAYS PASS PEACEFULLY
(Posted 01st January 2016)
Tourists and locals alike enjoyed both the Christmas holidays and the New Year celebrations in the region and beyond, with no major incidents reported from either Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya or Tanzania, nor from Zambia and Zimbabwe nor from the Indian Ocean islands.
Especially in Uganda were the country’s security and safety services on high alert and had deployed into the towns and the city of Kampala, where hotels were packed with patrons as were some of the Lake Victoria beaches popular with Ugandans.
Nearly 500 venues had been cleared by the Ugandan police for firework displays and the duration was strictly limited to five minutes, clearly aimed to prevent anyone taking advantage of prolonged fireworks. Public and private hospitals and ambulance services, the Red Cross and other organisations all had been on standby over the entire holiday period to ensure preparedness for any eventuality but in the face of heavy deployment by uniformed and plain clothes operatives was the country reported safe this morning, apart from some drunken bar brawls which were dealt with locally. The lighting of tyres and bonfires was also banned through an order from the Uganda Police to prevent any possibility of fires spreading.
After a day of rest today, 01st of January 2016, will as of tomorrow the country then entre the final one and a half months of an election campaign, which on the 18th of February will see Ugandans go to the polls to elect their President, Members of Parliament, LC5 and LC3 chairpersons and councilors throughout the country.
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni retains a strong lead over his main two rivals, former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi and his perennial rival Kiza Besigye, neither of which however has gained strong enough percentages in opinion polls to threaten President Museveni’s re-election, had it been held on the days the polls were taken.
The Uganda Tourism Board and the country’s private sector associations have however repeatedly stated that Uganda remains open for visitors. This applies to the final weeks of the election campaign, over the polling day and afterwards, when votes are tallied and winners declared, as the government will not allow political dissent to be taken to the streets.
‘Many of our tourists spend their first and last night in Entebbe hotels. Some are now taking advantage of flights into the national parks so not everyone has to pass through the capital. Tourists have never had any problems during our elections and it will not be any different in 2016. Tourist attractions, if they are in Jinja along the Nile or in the parks, are normally not very close to big concentrations of people. We are in constant contact with each other and our clients will be safe to track gorillas and chimpanzees and see the big game in the parks. Tanzania just had peaceful elections on the mainland. Rwanda just had a very peaceful referendum, I think there is too much hullaballoo about elections in Africa and trying to keep visitors away. There will be enough security so no one has to worry. We will be just fine, Uganda will be just fine’ commented one regular source, as usual here on condition of not being named.
Meanwhile, from the Pearl of Africa and from the Eastern African region, it is again a Happy New Year 2016 now that we have all entered it safely.
