Lakeside governors should look to Uganda for how to attract tourists
A boat race on Lake Victoria. FILE PHOTO | TOM OTIENO |
What you need to know:
- I was astonished to find that the Lwang’ni beach area in Kisumu remains the same way it has for years.
- Leaders in Entebbe have transformed the lakeside fronts into pleasant and enjoyable resting spots.
Governors and their MCAs have made a habit of touring Europe, America and Israel on the taxpayer fuelled joy-rides for which they have become notorious. But they might be better off visiting neighbouring countries from which they can draw useful lessons.
Where better for Kenyan administrators to learn about how to run a clean and efficient city in which traffic cops don’t ask for bribes than Kigali?
Uganda, too, has important lessons to offer especially to the governors from the lakeside.
In Entebbe, the entryway to the country located about 40km from the city centre (traffic jams make it seem much further away), Kenyan administrators will be surprised to find that the same Lake Victoria which is so seriously under-utilised on the Kenyan side has been excellently exploited to attract tourists.
During the recent governors’ conference, I was astonished to find that the Lwang’ni beach area in Kisumu remains the same way it has for years. Although the fish is still delicious, the lake is entirely under-exploited as a tourist attraction and is instead used to wash cars and boda bodas.
The Kisumu governor should tour Entebbe and see how leaders there, lacking the kind of coastal beaches Kenya enjoys, have transformed the lakeside fronts into pleasant and enjoyable resting spots, complete with clearly imported white sand on the beaches and elevated walkways next to the lake.
One can go, for example, to the Aero Beach, where they have fashioned eating spots out of disused aeroplanes and created a long beach whose milk-white sand, according to one online review, has “a sugary consistency on par with beaches in Hawaii”.
Or you can spend time at the similarly relaxed Kitubulu beach where visitors can enjoy the famous Guchina’s fish with cassava, which all the locals recommend.
It is very difficult to recognise that this is the very same Lake Victoria which also straddles the Kenyan side.
Hotels have reaped considerably from the artificial sand beaches and built numerous facilities that offer a sight of the lake. There are also attractions away from the beach such as the quiet, lush botanical gardens where one can while away the day surrounded by the whistled calls of hornbills and relaxing monkeys.
There is no reason why Kisumu, Migori, Homa Bay, Siaya and Busia can’t attract thousands of tourists by using their lakeside attractions more creatively.
Bitange Ndemo recently suggested that the unfortunate ongoing security problems at the Coast open up a significant opportunity for tourism in the Lake Victoria region. The governors don’t have to travel too much farther than Entebbe to witness a town that is reaping considerably from the very same lake.
Whatever one may think of Alfred Mutua, he has attracted thousands of Nairobians to his town with simple steps such as the very pleasant people’s park outside Machakos.
Lakeside governors have more natural opportunities and are sitting on a potential goldmine that would draw numerous tourists from the wider Western Kenya region and beyond.
Ugandans admire Kenya’s superior infrastructure, particularly its shiny new airport terminal and highways. There is much to learn from Tanzania’s cohesion and Rwanda’s efficiency and security.
Leaders don’t have to cross continents and oceans to pick up tips on how to improve the lives of wananchi. They can take a few creative steps such as those in Entebbe.
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Something is going seriously wrong at Kenya Airways. The journey from Nairobi to Kampala took seven hours after we were stranded at the airport for ages, with the KQ staff blaming an “engine problem”.
On social media, tales of delayed flights and costly missed connections have become commonplace.
The suggestion by the analyst Aly Khan Satchu that the national carrier should be subjected to a forensic audit to find out how things went so wrong and who is to blame must be pursued.
On another note, if the airline is indeed unviable, they should hasten the process of selling shares to the deep-pocketed Gulf Arab airlines.
Maintaining an airline for national pride is a Cold War era thing. That’s when every tiny country had to have an airline. Most collapsed after 1989.
In David Lamb’s The Africans, we learn that Gambia boasted a national airline, Gambia Airways, which had thousands of staff… but no airplanes.
