TOURISM | TOURISTS | ENTEBBE

"Entebbe Ewoma” (Entebbe is sweet) former President QC Godfrey Binaisa coined a phrase.

Did he imply: the rich aroma of coffee brewing, the cool breeze from Lake Victoria, tourists sunbathing, girls playing beach volleyball in bikinis, or the panoramic sky hugging the horizon from a distance?

My train of bonuses for Entebbe got longer, upon seeing the Victorian architecture of residential buildings, The Botanical Gardens, touring the 60 acres of Uganda Wildlife Education Center and walking the treed golf course as it engages the state house in a staring contest.

Time check is 10:00 am and ten of us flag ourselves off to walk from Nakiwogo through Kitoro via Aero Beach to Bugonga. 

We braved the sweltering sun heat. Those who have lived there for more than 40 years became self-styled tour guides.

One Fred Owaraga, whose father George William Owaraga was a permanent secretary during Idi Amin’s regime had a different perspective of Entebbe Ewoma.

“We used to have fun during Amin’s birthday. The place was State House where Amin would play the accordion and we sing along happy birthday,” recounts Owaraga. “I remember playing with his children who were studying in Buganda Road.”

By the time we reached Aero Beach Owaraga was still the authority. He said the airport was not fenced as it is today. They would sneak into the perimeter to play.

“That is the Air France airplane that was hijacked by Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and forced to land in Entebbe on July 4, 1976,” said Owaraga.

Mobile phones were fished out of pockets and googling proved Owaraga wrong. We had to seat for 30 minutes trying to recreate Entebbe International Airport then.

“Who pulled the trigger that hit the Israel commander Yonathan Netanyahu?” asked Robert Kiboli a Nakiwogo resident. “How did the radar not notice the arrival of the rescue airplanes?”

We left Aero Beach admiring the larger-than-life statues of former USA President Barrack Obama, his Uganda counterpart Yoweri Museveni and Kabaka Mutebi. A thought crossed my mind, Aero Beach could become a crowd-puller if it had a tour guide with answers to the questions that cropped up while we were there.

“A movie of Operation Thunderbolt would make patrons stay longer, eat more fish, and guzzle more wines” suggested Captain Jack Eselu.

Our next destination was the leafy Okra Guest House with a reception of birds out tweeting each other and monkeys rioting for our intrusion in their space. Scents of stuffed fish hang in the air as we lounged in the gardens.

“Remember the Uganda Airlines Boeing 707- 338C, registration 5X-UBC which crashed while attempting to land in foggy weather on the morning of October 17, 1988, in Rome?” asked John Opira.

“I still recall twenty-eight of those who died were Ugandans, including the pilot, Capt. Steven Walusimbi and his entire crew of seven. This was his home.”

We concluded the nature walk was very informative and Entebbe Ewoma ought to be developed as a tourist product of its own. The package has reptiles, marine sports, nature, culture, and cuisines waiting to be savored.