British tourist dies climbing Mt. Rwenzori

By Alfred Wandera

A British tourist, Michael Robert Collishaw, 71, collapsed and died on Tuesday while climbing Mount Rwenzori.

In the message Amos Wekesa, the Chief Executive Officer of Great Lakes Safaris, posted on his Facebook wall on Tuesday, Collishaw fainted and died at the height of 1400m at the foothills of the Rwenzoris.

Great Lakes Safaris (GLS) is the tour operator company that was handling a group of 12 British tourists that was on a two-week tourism escapade of the Rwenzoris, among whom were Collishaw and his wife, Pamela, 71.

“Great Lakes Safaris Ltd had a group of 12 English tourists climbing the foothills of the Rwenzoris, one of them 71-years-old fainted and unfortunately passed away at the height of 1400 meters high. Plans are being made to repatriate the body back to the UK. Just want to thank GLS family for professionally handling the situation and to the wife, our condolences,” said Wekesa in his Facebook post.

American model Marlina Moreno recently climbed the Rwenzori ranges to the Margherita Peak to market tourism in Uganda. PHOTO/ JOSEPHAT SSEGUYA.

“To our guides Robert and Emma; we are proud of you for how you handled the situation......even with first aid in all our cars, comprehensive insurance, Amref rescue that we pay $15 per client, our public liability insurance which is $3m etc a life still lost!!,” added Wekesa.

According to Sg. Joset Muhindo, the Officer in Charge of Tourism Police in Kabarole district, Collishaw collapsed at around midday on Tuesday while in company of the other 12 tourists.

“He fainted and died and his body was taken to the mortuary at Buhinga Referral Hospital in Kabarole. The rest of the team proceeded to King Fisher in Bunyaruguru, apart from the widow who remained behind with the body,” said Muhindo.

In a telephone interview Wednedday, Wekesa said the body was to be transferred to Mulago Hospital for postmortem Thursday and later airlifted to UK Friday.

“We are in touch with the British High Commission and they are working with the insurance company to transfer the body to UK on Friday. The widow has already been airlifted to Entebbe Airport and she is leaving Thursday at 1:00am for UK aboard British Airways. The body will follow later on Friday,” said Wekesa.

The death of Collishaw comes just a week after another tourist, Malcom Prentice, 72, died while climbing Mount Elgon in Mbale district.

Prentice was reported to have developed breathing complications while hiking the steep side of the mountain. He was filming on the Suam trail of Mount Elgon when the tragedy occurred.

Wekesa decried lack of emergency rescue services in the country in the tourism sector, saying they have to rely on AMREF that is based in Nairobi, which delays to respond because of the long distance.

He called for private investment in the emergency rescue mission to help uplift the tourism standards in the country.