OPINION

Moses Muhumuza Mugimba

By Moses Muhumuza Mugimba

On October 17, 2023, two tourists and a driver tour guide were gunned down by unknown killers, a terrible and barbaric incident. Previously, on April 2, 2019, along the Edward track unknown gunmen put four tourists on gun point and disappeared with two of them for $500,000 ransom, the other incidents are the massacre of eight tourists sometime back in Bwindi, an attack of wasps in May 2018 in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, that killed a 65-year-old American lady, a British National who died on April 7, 2018, as he climbed a hill in Butanda, Kabale, just to mention.

They are either from nature itself like fires, infectious disease outbreaks, bee and wasp attacks, earthquakes, earth falls and landslides, flash floods, militia related insecurity as terrorism, robberies, and may be instigated by hate, sabotage, thrill and fantasy. H.E President Yoweri Tibuhaburwa Kaguta Museveni Ssabalwanyi, the gallant UPDF, UWA, UTB, UPF, Ministry for ICT and National Guidance have no doubt since the October 17, incident displayed commendable skills in incident management and an applaud is in order.

A sudden sigh of relief has come with a letter of November 5, 2023 from Ssabalwanyi informing the Bazzukulu that one of the killers of the tourists has been arrested while the other three killed. Note that Uganda Is listed among the safest countries in the world with less likelihood of occurrence of such incidents as terrorist attacks, mass shootings and killings of tourists and these are in fact more likely to happen in the Americas, Europe, Middle East often ranked as most dangerous with Uganda always featuring as a very safe destination by many travel advisories. The New Vision of Thursday October 26, 2023, ‘Business Returns to Normal in Kasese, Queen Elizabeth Park, Uganda wild life Authority reaffirms safety of the Park’, on one of the Television Stations, the headline was Uganda’s tourism ‘refuses to die’.

The immense historical, current and future economic and social transformation potential of tourism is far reaching and well documented. Thus far the incidents that have happened in Uganda’s National parks should be a stepping stone to building a concrete and tested Incident Management plan with procedures and protocols for making tourism completely safe, predictable and confidence for more tourists to flock the National Parks. On the day of the incident, I happened to have led a team on assignment visits of some tourism facilities country wide and had completed those in Fort Portal and proceeding to Kasese where we would spend two days in Kasese and Rubirizi Districts, ideally those in and around Queen Elizabeth National Park and suddenly images of dead bodies and vehicles in flames in our supposed next destination.

There was an immediate change of programme, as we tried to get better information and the way forward. Calls were made to some of the owners of the tour facilities and it was understandably worries of uncertainty of the killers’ motive, the next targets and fear of cancellations and loss of revenue. Uganda Police Force (UPF) on its tweeter handle by its spokesperson issued a statement that was contradicted or corrected by a tweet from the Executive Director of Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), and a prominent tourism entrepreneur and enthusiast retweeted it with advice on the aftermath handling to which we tweeted an inquiry with no response.

Press statements soon followed from UWA, UPDF and UPF, a Presidential address, later a closure press brief by the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance on the current state of security, the future deployment of drones for monitoring and thoughts of empathy in naming of roads after the fallen tourist and reaching out to the family of the dead tour guide.  The events of the incident were genuinely terrifying and of serious concern, and the aftermath handling of the incident by any measure well done and handled, but can be done better. An Incident Management Plan, Procedures and Protocol drawing lessons from these incidents and forward looking is needed that addresses response, command, information gathering, resources, incident action, security and protection enhancement, recovery, investigations and prosecution, lessons for future improvement. UWA has been equipped with tourism police, it’s expected to have all departments including intelligence, CID, rangers and others, who are probably doing a good job to avert some of the incidents, with room for continuous improvement.

The relevant institutions should have dedicated resources to have localised, routinely rehearsed and an immediately implementable Incident Management Plan, Procedures and protocols. The plan should provide monitoring predictions for potentially tourism disruptive incidents like fires, infectious disease outbreaks, bee and wasp attacks, earthquakes, earth falls and landslides, flash floods, militia related insecurity as terrorist. Management of the immediate negative impacts of the incident and subsequent future and possible cumulative impacts to restore tourist confidence as quickly as possible is key.

A realistic and achievable action plan with; Joint periodic guided, simulated and mimicked training and drills with tour guides and operators, tour facility staff and owners and community engagements, tourist briefs on any potential threats of any kind, Incentives and intensification of Information gathering and dissemination from and to the tour operators, the community and quick coordinated response to potential and actual incidents. Daily or weekly alerts and updates and a clear incident closure plan is ideal. Creation of a dedicated emergence fund for the damage caused to the tourism business community, and capture of lessons learnt and mapping for likely future incidents is needed.

In the aftermath of the October 17, incident, it seemed mainly the media seeking out the tourists from Germany, Switzerland and others, and the neighbouring community, and ideally it should be a multi stakeholder approach led by UTB the responsible institution. With this, the Uganda tourism industry shall survive these incidents and continue to thrive.

The writer is a Fellow of Green Rights Organisation (GRO), Certified Legal, Natural Resources and Environmental Consultant, Advocate of Courts of Judicature of Uganda.