Government to NUP: Tour Uganda and share positive messages, not negative

The Minister of State for Tourism, Martin Mugarra asked the National Unity Platform (NUP ) to tour Uganda and share beautiful messages about Uganda, as opposed to the only "negative message" he claims the group is known for sharing.

He made the remarks during yesterday’s plenary sitting, while thanking Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa for leading Parliament to showcase Uganda's beauty, when he led a team of tourists from Portugal and Maldives on a Gorilla tracking experience in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Ruhija Sector on July 30 2024.

“I would be happy to see the Leader of Opposition and the entire NUP team for once, going out there and putting out a beautiful message about Uganda, not only the bad,” said Mugarra.

Tayebwa encouraged all MPs including the opposition to lead the way in showcasing Uganda, despite the difference in political opinion, and also wondered why some MPs make trips to tour abroad, yet these places don’t have a quarter of what Uganda has.

“I would urge you to visit our national parks, to visit our national heritage sites. You can love your country without agreeing with your Government. And by the way, it is an awesome experience.

The gorillas came to me, because you are supposed to keep a distance of 10meters, but they kept coming to me maybe they thought I was going to hold a Parliamentary session and they wanted to catch my eye and it was a very beautiful experience and whoever comes and visits, they feel good,” said Tayebwa.

The Deputy Speaker however noted that the tourists enjoyments of Uganda’s national parks is being hampered by poor infrastructure like roads and telecommunication network, yet the tourists are charged highly to track these gorillas.

He explained that the tourists had issues especially telecom network, adding that these people want the moment they take a picture, they share instantly.

“So do we have network in the national parks before the excitement goes away? Then the roads, a road of 23Km from Rubanda to Ruhija, it took me 2hours. I can see the communities are trying to protect these parks, but when you look at the money we are getting, because we charge these people US$800 (Shs2,965,632) to come and watch gorillas for 1hour. So many of them are like, I take a long journey from Entebbe, then I add on a bad road,” he added.

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