Opinion: The manners and corruption at Entebbe airport need to be sanitised

By Michael Woira

On a Monday morning, I had to escort someone to Entebbe International Airport and because, her flight was at exactly 8:35am,that meant that by 6am or 7am she had to be boarding already.

Before leaving home, she made sure that she had all her documents and was certain she had a Covid Certificate with a negative PCR test, had her visa and air ticket, carried her Yellow Fever book and of course her National I.D.

We reached at the airport by 5am and found a very long queue with many travelers from several labour companies, but as humanity demands, everyone was on the line and the health workers made sure that whoever had a proper Covid certificate was allowed to check in but entering the main check-in hall is where all Ugandans have been getting issues.

The document verification counter is one hell of a problem that people face, you come with all documents and reaching at this counter they introduce a new document to you or even declare the ones you have as not relevant or even come up with an allegation against you just to make sure that they make you uncomfortable.

A person that I had escorted presented all her documents but surprisingly they first told her that she needed to be fully vaccinated to travel, then they changed the statement briefly saying that she must present a vaccination card from Uganda and like that wasn’t enough, they later said that she needed an arrival registration form with details of where she was heading and who was receiving her.

Imagine asking for such at check-in and asking it from a person who already has a Visa and a residence ID of where she is going, and just in the very premises the advisors are always just very close to the person telling you all that and all they say is just pay some ka small money to be helped and the ka small money ranges from 300,000 to 500,000 depending on how you show need to travel.

All this happened as I was just standing outside observing several movements of people just around Departure, you could easily detect that something business related happens there because of the many faces that keep whispering to each other and exchanging either money or phone numbers.

It’s not bad being a dealer or making people’s lives hard just to extort them of their little money but it’s unethical and very uncalled for to taint the name of a brand like Entebbe Airport with such kind of corruption.

A few days ago, I talked to some girls who were travelling and they told me that for them it’s very easy to go through the various steps of check-in because they pay 300,000 in advance to someone who quickens the process for them so when they arrive at the airport everything is sorted they just enter with ease. This is how far corruption has gone at this place.

As an advocate of etiquette and ethics, I recognize that corruption is a strategic business risk and it really causes many losses to a brand and also promotes illegalities in the system.

Our government has implemented policies that make the country investor- friendly and boost tourism. Some of the places targeted by the policies in place are the airports, where hawking and asking for tips have been discouraged.

But despite these efforts, airport officials and attendants still devise ways to extort passengers which is totally bad and annoying.

I have seen the public relations team of Mr. Vianney Luggya trying its best to clean the image of the airport but there are still a number of elements extorting and acting unfair to the travelers that use the airport.

I know some communication is always made via the Civil Aviation Authority  website but maybe on addition to that the screens at the airport should be clearly showing all the requirements that travelers need to have access to the check-in hall other than letting people in and then they be harassed from there.

Therefore, my anger aside, I think all employees at the airport must always act honestly and with integrity.

Fraud is a very dishonest conduct which causes actual financial loss to Entebbe Airport and to this effect toll free numbers should be fixed everywhere to make sure that any fraud is reported immediately and for

record purposes.

I would like to appreciate the lady who was on duty, Ms. Karungi Zurah the Duty Operations Officer who swung in action when I contacted her for help.

My other request to the management of the airport is that the employees and the third party associates must not commit, authorize, be party to or be directly or indirectly involved in bribery or corruption in any form in connection with Entebbe Airport’s business because any form of the above taints the image of our very busy airport.

Finally, to whoever is concerned, please help those young girls and boys travelling out for work, don’t extort them of more money yet they are always there because they have to go look for money, you can still offer help by guiding them well on what to do so the check-in process is easy.

Michael Woira is a patriotic Ugandan