Gorillas and Wildlife Safaris is 2015 Winner of Excellence

Gorillas and Wildlife Safaris Uganda has won the prestigious Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor, which honours businesses that consistently earn top ratings from TripAdvisor travellers.

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With the rating of 5, Gorillas and Wildlife Safaris has earned a place among the very best. The award is given to only the most exceptional performers in the TripAdvisor global business community. It is a significant achievement deserving of recognition from both travellers and staff. In Uganda, the company is the the only tour operator to win the award in 2015.

TripAdvisor is the world’s largest travel site that recognizes the power of travellers’ feedback.’ We are proud to recognise Gorillas and Wildlife Safaris for earning exceptional traveller rating over the past year,’ confirmed Christine Petersen, the President Trip Advisor for Business. Ivan Wassaaka, the MD of Gorillas and Wildlife Safaris says that this certificate is a testimony to the reliably high standards in the company. “We strive to offer our customers a memorable experience, and this accolade is evidence that our hard work is translating into positive reviews on TripAdvisor.”

Also Alison Coups, Vice President of arketing for TripAdvisor for Business confirms this. “The Certificate of Excellence award provides top performing establishments around the world the recognition they deserve, based on feedback from those who matter most – their customers.”

We would like to say a BIG thank you to all our corporate and individual clients as well as companies that have been supporting Gorillas and Wildlife Safaris both in Uganda and Rwanda!

Interested in taking your holiday in Uganda and Rwanda? Why not contact one of our sales team now!

Construction of Uganda Martyrs Museum Commences

The construction of Uganda Martyrs Museum in Namugongo yesterday picked steam with Uganda president Yoder Muse Venice donating shs.410m during a special service for fundraising and laying its foundation stone. 

The shs 36bn multipurpose complex Museveni was told, is expected to be built in phases with its tentative completion date being late 2018. 

The site upon which the museum is being built is the place where 23 Anglican and 22 Catholic martyrs were burnt to death in 1886 on the orders of Kabaka Manga the then king of Buganda kingdom the biggest tribe in Uganda. 

The leadership of the church of Uganda hope the complex will help add value to a historical site that annually draws thousands of pilgrims and tourists to Uganda on account of its significance to the Christian faith. The Martyrs Day is celebrated every June 3, at the shrine. 

Drawing parallels between history of Uganda martyrs and Ugandan's struggle to free their country from fangs of tyranny, a jovial Museveni lacing his speech with biblical verses, said "the culture of heroism and martyrdom is part of Uganda's history. 

"Bazillion Okello confronted some peasants in Luwero and gave them a condition to either reveal where the rebels were or face death. They chose to die although they knew where the rebels were hiding, " Museveni said.

"So, Uganda's heroes, just like the Martyrs died for a noble cause for which we remember them every year." 

Museveni, who had carried along shs 40m in cash, increased his pledge to shs 400m with the balance of shs 360m to be paid this week. 

Museveni also auctioned a portrait of Petero Kisosonkole - the landlord who donated 48 acres of the land where the museum is being built - at shs 65m, with himself forking out shs 10m for it.

In order to raise the tourism potential of the museum and the annual Uganda Martyrs fete in Namugongo, Museveni promised that the road from Kireka to Namugongo will soon be revamped with public walkways. 

Earlier, the archbishop of Uganda,the Most Reverend Stanley Ntagali led the service graced by Vice President, Edward Ssekandi, the Catholic Bishop of Kampala Diocese,  Dr. Cipriano Kizito Lwanga and the top echelon of the Anglican Church in Uganda. 

Uganda National Museum–A Forgotten Rich Cultural heritage?

The museum, which occupies 3.359 hectares (approximately 13 acres), located on Plot 5, Kira road in Kamwokya, is in dire need of a facelift. Although it is evident that the exterior recently got a fresh brush of paint, a number of things need to be fixed. For instance, the benches in the garden are dilapidated, while the parking yard needs to be widened and repaved.

The museum was founded in 1908 and has exhibits and artifacts of traditional culture, archeology, history and science. It has various interesting sections riddled with artifacts that bring to life the different historical aspects of our society. For instance, in the Stone Age section, one is able to observe physical tools used by Stone Age people. These tools include stones, bones and wood used for cutting, scrapping and chipping, and how they evolved into the modern tools that Ugandans use today, or used in the recent past.

One is also able to see how we evolved from our ancestors, from the pre-historic period through the history of apes and how they evolved into humans. The story is told by the displayed pictures, as well as real tools and bones or skulls that make the history we learn in school seem more real.

Uganda’s multicultural and colourful past comes alive as one tours the History and Iron Age displays depicting the traditional ways of life in different kingdoms, tribes and communities of Uganda. Here one finds striking displays of traditional clothing (mostly bark cloth and animal skin), headdress, hairdressing, as well as hunting, the history of transportation, fishing, agriculture, war, religion, and how our ancestors spent their free time (traditional recreation).

Also of interest is the display that describes how justice was dispensed in Uganda many years ago. With no penal code, police force or criminal investigations department as they exist today, how did people in earlier days know/prove who had committed which crime and what punishment fitted him/her? One would be able to learn that the Madi and Lugbara used divine pots to assess the innocence of the accused.

However, despite this rich cultural heritage value, government believes that the museum has become a liability, having failed to generate any meaningful revenue. A trade centre in the same place, government feels, would perform much better. Yet government must also take part of the blame, having continually underfunded the museum. For instance, for the 2011/2012 financial year, it was allocated a mere Shs 50 million, money that certainly is not enough to meet its needs.

Over the years, the management of the museum has tried to come up with innovative ways to circumvent the funding crisis. It has, for instance, leased part of its land to the Uganda Wildlife Authority, which has established offices and to private developers like Ibamba restaurant. However, sources told us that the museum has no direct control over the resources generated from these ventures.

Management also introduced entry charges to boost the facility’s income. Until the early 2000s, Ugandans visiting the museum were not charged but, today, adults pay Shs 1,000 to enter and children, Shs 500. The entry fees for foreigners are Shs 3,000 for adults and Shs 1,500 for children. Visitors carrying still and video cameras pay an additional Shs 5,000 and Shs 20,000 respectively.