Politicians' daughters contest for Miss Tourism Karamoja crown

Last Friday, the regional search for Miss Tourism Uganda queen continued with the pageant's scouts making a stop in Karamoja region. The event was held at Mt. Moroto Hotel, Moroto District and gave judges quite a tensed up affair.

To begin with, all attention was cast on two contestants who are daughters to political parents in the region. The two girls, Lapa Elma Challa and Vanessa Nangiro, are daughters of Hon. Esther Anyakun, Woman MP Nakapiripit, and Christine Nakwang, former woman MP Kaboong.

 
Because of these girls' background, the other contestants felt they had no chance and a number of them pulled out of the competition before even taking to the runway.

Initially they were 13 contestants but by Friday, only four had remained to contest. The nine that pulled out feared the influential political parents of Challa and Nangiro might twist judges' hands to favour their daughters, which was not really the case on the night of the final.

 
The political parents, too, never helped matters as they made the contest seem like a political rally with processions of honking vehicles and Boda Boda across streets as they made their way to the venue. And the venue was crammed to rafters, making it the biggest turn up so far in the countrywide search.  

The contest started at 9:00pm with the four girls giving attendees their opening dance. After that, the contestants, alongside Miss Tourism Uganda National coordinators and outgoing beauty queens, paid tribute to the fallen tourism minister Dr. Maria Mutagamba.

At the end of it all, it was Lapa Elma Challa that won the contest. She was followed by her rival, Vanessa Nangiro, 21, and Joan Ursula Napeyok, 20 in first and second runner up positions respectively.

Both rivaling contestants were quite confident and articulate but Challa was more impressive during the question-and-answer session.

However, the four girls were terrible on their catwalks. The three girls will go into the boot camp for the national crown slated for September 30, at Kampala Serena Hotel.

One of the judges, Rhonah Kisakye, former Miss Tourism Busoga queen said the girls were just taken up by the occasion and seemed to forget everything they had been trained. "The three girls will do well in the nationals if they get enough training and remain focused. They were all taken up by the occasion."

The good thing, the losing party took the results in good strides and joined the rest for the after party blast that went on until the wee hours of the morning.