A week to Christmas day, I received a call from Mukono Municipality member of parliament, Betty Nambooze Bakireke inviting me to join her and the family to celebrate the day that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ.
Obviously, Christmas does not appeal to a Muslim like myself, but the venue of the celebration did; so, the answer was yes. On December 23 at 3am, we set off from Mukono town for Kaabong, a district in the far northeast of Uganda about 780km from Kampala.
Although the Kitgum road is nearer and friendlier, for purposes of adventure, we chose the more torturous Mbale – Soroti – Amuria route to Karamoja – arguably Uganda’s most underdeveloped region. The road from Mukono to Soroti, save for a few areas such as Pallisa and Budaka where it is under maintenance, is tarmac and friendly to motorists.
However, hell begins when you branch off to Amuria district. It is rough, bumpy and dusty! If your car air conditioner is malfunctioning, you have to withstand the terrible heat or ‘eat’ the dust. Although most of Uganda has been affected by the drought, it is nothing compared to Teso and Karamoja sub- regions.
Throughout the two sub- regions, you see swathes of parched land stretching hundreds of kilometers without any green save for a few resistant trees. One wonders what their animals eat! Maybe this partly explains the reduction in livestock in the area, save for donkeys that can survive in very harsh conditions.
At 2pm, we reached the now-famous Abim hospital, which made news after FDC strongman Kizza Besigye visited it at the height of the 2016 presidential campaigns. The hospital has since got a facelift with seemingly-improved infrastructure. Unfortunately, we were unable to explore its interior as it was under key and lock.
By the time we visited, all staff had broken off for Christmas. Strange, for a regional hospital! This was the same case with Kaabong hospital, which has the best infrastructure in the Karamoja sub-region. It even has staff quarters on several acres, each complete with solar panels and water reservoirs.
Our driver who was familiar with the place, told us the hospital was a donation from the Chinese government, but many of its staff quarters are occupied by the district’s senior employees, including the RDC.
Poverty and drought have reduced Karimojongs to beggars. Wherever you pass people expect you to give them something. In Pallisa, Mbale and Soroti, among other areas, people gathered in markets jostling for Christmas goodies. There were makeshift abattoirs where animals were being slaughtered for the D-day, but all I saw in Kaabong were men and women seated in circles taking local brew.
Kaabong town council is just a handful of shanty buildings that house the few shops in the area. The town is also home to the equally-not-impressive district headquarters. We spent two days in Kaabong town but to describe those two days as a nightmare would be an understatement.
No decent restaurant, accommodation or an Airtel mobile money booth. The only memorable thing there was the Karimojong’s traditional dance. Dancers launching themselves into the air as if they have springs in their feet. Children, men and women wore dirty, threadbare NRM yellow T-shirts.
“Haa, President Museveni is very popular here. You see everyone is having a yellow T-shirt, 11 months after the election,” I whispered to Nambooze.
“I actually think this is a sign of poverty. Many of those people have never taken off those T-shirts since they were given to them; they have no alternative,” Nambooze replied.
For the two days in Kaabong we slept in what is touted as the best lodge in town; a decent omuzigo for the average Kampalan. No running water, no toilet, no bathrooms, no television, old linens, power that goes out at 11 pm… nothing to write home about.
JOURNEY TO KIDEPO
On December 26, we finally set out for Kidepo Valley national park, about 36km from Kaabong town, also the highlight of our trip. Just as the other places, the ground looked barren under the scorching sun. I wondered what the Karimojong eat. I was told they mainly depend on foreign aid.
As soon as you enter the 1,442-square-kilometer park, you start to see the wild animals. Antelopes, kobs, buffaloes, zebras, and waterbucks are seen grazing at close range. We were supposed to camp in the wild and, indeed, had traveled with our tents. However, the violent strong winds would not allow us to camp.
Although Karamoja is very hot during the day, it gets chilly at night; unless you carry thick woolen blankets, you risk freezing in a tent. With this in mind, we lodged in the bandas in the middle of the park. These were modern self-contained huts. Kidepo is home to more than 77 animal species and hundreds of birds.
I was told by Sgt Phillip Akoronginoe buffaloes constitute the largest number of single mammals in the park. It is easy to spot thousands of them grazing on the savannah
“We have more than 12,000 buffaloes here,” he told me. Male buffaloes in groups of three to 10 are also seen. When a male buffalo grows old and it can no longer keep up with or defend the herd, it is chased away by more powerful, youthful male buffaloes. Our guide, Akoronginoe, said an isolated buffalo is the most dangerous as it is vulnerable to attacks.
“But if animals know that when you grow old you have to give way for more energetic youths to take charge, why not us who are stuck with one person 30 years later?” Nambooze said cryptically.
The park is also home to about 600 elephants although I only saw three. There are more than 400 zebras, about 35 giraffes and warthogs that roamed around our bandas.
Other animals in the park that I sadly never got a chance to see include the more than 100 lions, 25 leopards, 13 cheetahs, greater kudu, elands, at least 300 ostriches, all in the northern part of the park which we never got to visit because of time.
According to Augustine Johnson Masereka, the conservation area manager, the park faces a challenge of wild fires that mainly originate from communities trying to clear their gardens.
Poaching is also still a problem, especially by South Sudanese along the border. [Kidepo national park shares borders with Kenya and South Sudan.]
Masereka said they poach the small animals for bush meat and elephants for tusks.
“On the Ugandan side [poaching] is normally for subsistence; they go for small mammals like antelopes, which is sustainable, but poaching buffaloes and elephants is a big concern,” Masereka said.
Although we visited the park during the dry season, the huge trenches and gullies show that when it rains much of the park becomes inaccessible. The Narusi river, I was told, floods so much that all the improvised bridges are washed away.
“The soils are a bit sandy; even when you construct slabs for the water to pass, they can easily wash way the soil on either side and eventually the bridge is also washed away,” Masereka says.
Kidepo, which comes from a Karimojong word kidep meaning to pick, is savanna grassland, where the plain eye can see as far as 10 kilometers.
“Kidepo is the only remaining typical savanna park. The rest are becoming woodland and shrub land. Murchison Falls has been eaten up by forest land and the open grazing land has reduced. The others like Queen Elizabeth and Lake Mburo national parks are turning into woodland as trees close up,” Masereka, who worked at Lake Mburo before he was posted to Kidepo, said.
MORE NATIONALS VISITING PARKS
The distance, poor road network and insecurity that used to characterise Karamoja and the Acholi sub-regions made Kidepo national park less attractive to tourists both local and international.
However, Masereka said currently the number of visitors to the park is increasing. He said in the coming years nationals will overtake foreigners in visiting national parks.
He said the total number of visitors in 2011 was 2,200 while 5,900 visited in 2014-15 financial year. Of these, Masereka said, 40% were Ugandan.
“We are seeing the percentage of local visitors compared to foreigners increasing, but in the past it was more than 90 per cent foreign visitors.”
This information excited Godfrey Kiwanda, the junior minister in charge of tourism. Kiwanda, who I met at the park where he was with his family for the Christmas holiday, said he is going to intensify his Tulambule campaign to have more Ugandans visit parks and other tourist attractions.
WHAT IT TAKES TO VISIT A PARK
To an average Ugandan, visiting a park is not necessarily cheap. To enter a park, one pays Shs 15,000 renewable every 24 hours. A good visit with all game viewing would take at least two days. That would mean accommodation in the park’s bandas that go for Shs 70,000 per night for a double. For a single, Shs 42,000 is charged.
Of course there is also the swanky, five-star Apoka Lodge that charges upwards from $230 for a room. If you have not gone with a vehicle, Shs 100,000 is charged for a group of three with each extra person paying 30,000 for a game drive that ordinarily takes up to six hours.
The food is prepared on reservation. However, tourists are free to make their own food. Therefore, on average, one needs at least Shs 1m to enjoy two nights in the wild.
WHY YOU MUST VISIT KIDEPO
Kidepo, according to Masereka, is a wild park and if one wants to be alone with only wild game; it is the place to be.
“It is codenamed “the true wilderness for Africa”; wherever you go, it’s you and the wildlife; it’s not like in other parks where you go and everywhere you look, there are human beings,” he said.
Although we had agreed to set off for Kampala at 4am on December 27, none of us lifted our bodies from the beds when that time came. It was not until 9am, that we were all ready to make that more than 740km journey back to Kampala; this time, through Kitgum.
I am very enthusiastic about returning to this park, despite the torturous journey that left me bedridden for two days with a cold, thanks to the dust. Nevertheless, I would love to see that cheetah, not to mention the ostrich – the world’s fastest creature on two legs.
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