Rumblings of an African Legal Mind . . .

By Martin Musinguzi from Charlotte, NC USA.

For a foreigner, living in the diaspora means having to explain yourself or a little bit about your origins quite frequently. This maybe out of necessity (inevitable questions regarding your “nice” accent) but may also be self-imposed as some foreign nationals feel its their duty to educate every mzungu they meet (which is a whole lot of them!) about their home country. This is particularly so, if like me you happen to come from Rwanda. You see, I do not want anyone to leave my presence without hearing the good stuff about Rwanda. My rationale is simple, not only is it a source of pride but also the fact that whoever I am talking to is a potential tourist which means money for my country.

Suffice it to say, I can lay claim to many a Rwandan tourist. Which is why I thought it was another scoop when a workmate decided to take the plunge and visit Rwanda with his entire family. I told him he will never regret the decision and I went into over-drive. The more I pumped him info about the beauty of Rwanda, the more family members he convinced to come along. Typically, this planning has taken a little over 6 months to have everyone lined up – time off work, synchronizing sick leave with paid leave, organizing for live-in babysitters, caretakers for the elderly, take care of stuff that needs to be done in your absence, like pay your taxes and bills in advance, surf the internet for cheap flight deals. Simply put, it is a big deal and very time-consuming. Personally, I secured for him current brochures on Rwanda, and kept forwarding him e-mails of Rwanda’s international Tourism Awards. To cut the sorry story short, this family has decided to go to Uganda because, as of June 2012 tickets to visit gorillas cost $750 (from $500) in Rwanda as opposed to $500 in Uganda.  Why?

Last year, Rica Rwigamba, head of Rwanda’s Tourism arm at the Rwanda Development Board, announced that Rwanda was ready to implement the EAC tourist visa if only the other EAC countries could fast-track this event. Tourism undoubtedly has raised more revenue than most other sectors in Rwanda (the Rwandan Washington D.C website last posted a $200 million figure in earnings for 2010) accounting for more than half a million foreign tourists in 2010 alone. These figures have undoubtedly increased since and considering the trend, an increase in ticket prices to gain more revenue may sound like a terrific idea. Granted, maintaining and conserving those gorillas may be costly and the annual kwita izina ceremonies have to be paid for, but does that justify a 50% increase in ticket prices?

I stand to be corrected but unless there is a reason to believe that Gorillas in Rwanda look better than the ones in Uganda, I don’t understand why Rwanda’s tourism board would, in effect, chase away such “income-earners”? How are Rwanda’s tourism agencies supposed to compete favorably with their Ugandan counterparts? Even if one was to “try harder”, the idea is to help businesses attract tourists, not to set them up for stiffer competition. What about the ripple effect, the farmer with the one cow does not slaughter it for beef – lest his family lacks milk for the next several years. Likewise, any tourists that decide not to come affect the gross incomes of hoteliers, taxi drivers, restaurant owners, traditional crafts markets, tour agents, not to mention the all-too-common investourist. Obviously, some technocrat has a good reason for this policy, but the hope is that all policy is subjected to real pragmatic considerations. For instance, pragmatically speaking, Uganda has quite similar tourist attractions Rwanda has to offer (like Gorillas, Old Palaces, National Park[s]) as well as many more that Rwanda cannot offer.  Furthermore, Gorillas are Rwanda’s main attraction and if ceteris paribus, they are the determining factor for potential tourists (like the family mentioned above) – no matter how much arm-twisting I pour into my pitch – they have 250 reasons not choose Rwanda. Which begs one practical question; why the self-imposed disadvantage?