State Minister for Tourism, Godfrey Kiwanda has defended the use of beautiful girls in all his tourism concepts as intended to attract people’s attention.
The tourism ministry has seen female celebrities including Zari, Quin Abenakyo and recently Anita Fabiola used to promote Uganda’s tourism, raising concern from the public.
However, the minister said the use of girls is done specifically to attract attention to tourism.
“My intention is to bring everyone to discuss tourism. Everyone is now discussing tourism. Ugandans have never been involved in discussing tourism as they are today,”Kiwanda said while appearing on the Big Talk on the NXT radio hosted by Joseph Sabiti on Saturday.
“When you look at international companies, they use women to sell their products and I don’t think that is a bad thing, unless you misuse it.”
The minister insisted he will use more girls as one of the ways to ensure Uganda’s tourism industry is discussed by everyone.
“The ministry lacked the vibe that you are now seeing.”
Kiwanda was also tasked to explain the various photos making rounds on social media showing him with the curvy Fabiola as they move around the various tourist attractions.
The minister defended himself saying some of the photos were fabricated adding that it is not true that he had admired Fabiola’s butt as portrayed in one of the photos doing rounds on social media.
“There is this photo showing me looking up to admire Fabiola. It was photoshop. I didn’t go zip lining because I could not manage it. When you observe the photo, you can see it has a white line in the middle to show it was photoshop,”Kiwanda explained.
Asked whether his wife doesn’t mind always seeing him moving out with beautiful girls, Kiwanda said his wife understands the nature of his job.
“My wife Veronica understands my job. We have been together for 20 years and me as a minister I understand that I have done nothing wrong.”
On the miss curvy pageant, Minister Kiwanda said it will go on because it is not different from other pageants that have been ongoing for many years.
“It’s the story behind the curves. We are selling a story and not just the women. You can’t talk about the country without talking about its people. It does not mean we are selling people.”
“When you look at all the beauty pageants they have no difference with miss curvy. When you criticise miss curvy, it should be the same way you should do to other beauty pageants,”Kiwanda said.
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