Discover Uganda with tour packages from Abeam Uganda Safaris and experience the thrill and enthrallment at the most visited wildlife sanctuaries and mountains of the country.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tour packages by Abeam Uganda Safari are not only designed keeping basic customer requirements in mind, but also affordability factors. At Uganda Safaris one can avail pre-vacation packages as per personal traveling needs. We run our daily operations with a group of professionals skilled who understanding all travel interests of the people. We help tourists in choosing a desired vacation package so that they don’t land up in any kind of confusions.

At http://www.ugandasafarisafrica.com, tourists are offered gorilla safaris, bird safaris, guided walks, mountain climbing and trekking, religious and cultural tour packages etc amongst others. Planning trips to wildlife sanctuaries like Kibale National Park, Queen Elizabeth National Park and Lake Mburo National Parks can be done through this tour operator. Apart from all this, people can also register themselves for a week’s Gorilla Express tour. The Itinerary of this particular tour package proceeds airport to hotel transfers by a professional travel guide along with a city tour that would make you explore places like Uganda Museum, Kasubi Tombs and the Bahai temple etc. Prices of this tour package may vary depending upon personal requirements.

Other services offered by us for tourists include Holiday Tours, Flying Safaris, Gorilla Safaris, Luxury Safaris, Short Tours and Birding Safaris etc. All of these packages are designed with a view to make a person have a feel of Uganda in a way that he keeps visiting the country for more adventure. Those who do not wish to stay in expensive hotel accommodations, Abeam Safaris Uganda can also make arrangements for such tourists in budget hotels.

So, avail a Safari or any of our tour packages from http://www.ugandasafarisafrica.com at affordable and competent rates and bring home memorable moments to share
amongst closed ones.

Abeam Uganda Safaris is a locally owned Uganda Safari company that is based in Kampala, Uganda. Our company offers services to tourists coming from across the globe at affordable rates. Apart from designing travel packages, the company is also into event management services that can be availed to organize an event in cities as well as in jungles.

For more information please contact at:

Abeam Safaris & Travel Ltd | Nakawa- Ntinda rd near Eureka Accommodation | P. O. BOX 27707 | Kampala| Uganda
Phone:+256 486 660228, 0414 663207 | Mobile:+256 712 413350, 0782 331688 | 24 hrs 7 :+256 – 772 502713 Email: abeamsafaris@gmail.com | Website:www.abeamsafaris.com | ugandasafarisafrica.com | SKYPE: gloria .okurut | jonathan.oparo

The magnificent Sipi Falls, is the most beautiful and romantic waterfall in the whole of Uganda. Sipi is an ideal place to relax in the warm mountain sun and to go for rambles in the shambas – homestead gardens- of the local Sebei people. The camp is built around a croft-like house originally built as a governor’s retreat, on a cliff directly overlooking the mesmerizing Sipi Falls and the Karamojong plains. Sipi is about 4-5 hours drive from Kampala, passing the Source of the Nile at Jinja. It is convenient for visiting Kenya and the renowned Kidepo Valley National Park in northern Uganda

Uganda has obtained an increase of tourism by 15% in 2010 then to 2011 emerging the fast growing sector in the country contributing about 24% of the total Foreign exchange (forex) earnings.

There were 842, 000 arrivals in 2009, rising to over 900, 000 in 2010 which increased forex earnings from $165.3m in 2001 to over $600m and at least $700m by the close of 2011, according to the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB).

In Africa, Kenya’s 249, 786 was the continent’s biggest number, followed by Rwanda (181, 339) whilst Somalia’s 5, 096 was the least.

Uganda has 6.8% of the world butterfly species, 7.8% of the world mammals, 53.9% of the mountain gorilla population, the source of the largest river in Africa- River Nile- with the most thrilling rafting opportunity on earth,” he says.

All this have bee the most attractions that have made this rise in the tourism increase

The electoral commission has con celled the Mayoral Elections of Kampala city after the there was massive stuffing of ballots for some boxes, the places include Bat Valley, the National Library, the National Theater and in Rubaga where the polling Agents connived with some people to tick some ballots.

Its therefore not known when it will be conducted again  and also the people who have done the stuffing of the ballot boxes is also being investigated.

The the are current news from the political scene of Kampala

Uganda held its 6 Presidential and parliamentary Elections that was held on the 18th of February 2011, the first of its kind was held in 1961 with Mutesa 1 taking the presidency of which Dr Apolo Milton Obote was prime Minister. The second one was in 1980 which is believd in the history of Uganda as mired by a lot of elections multi practices that let to some people start gorilla bush war with the Government.  The other were held in 1996, 2001, 2006 and here the recent was held on 18th, of February 2011,

According to the election observers that numbered to about 77 in all over Africa and Europe, said thie was the the best Elections for Uganda as it was free and fair, and just a few incidences of Violence were report however it remained peaceful.

Many of the ministers have lost there places during this elections and therefore say that the New gorvement will have new face for ministerial posts.

The Incumbent has won this elections by 68.4% above the mark of 2006 of 59%. this means that President Yoweri Museveni is going to have a fourth term for 5 years which will end in 2016.

As expected, many people had left this country in fear of violence, but nothing happened apart from a few place and this is good sign of to the world that have kept an eye sight to this country for a long time to see changes that occur. the peaceful elections means more investors will get confidence to come to invest in Uganda, increase tourism, hotel bookings will increase in Uganda especially in Entebbe, Kampala and Jinja In the Touristic sites, there will be more booking for especially Gorilla tracking, and wildlife sightseeing.

Where as there will be opportunity and challenges for the new government, the Elections where much peaceful than the previous and more people went to make there choice.

The Government of Uganda has injected Shs488b to subsidies the power costs in tariff relief to shield consumers from the high power costs.

“The retail domestic cost will remain unchanged and the Government is committed to continue to subsidies the tariffs until cheaper generation is brought on board, this was the statement made by the state minister for energy Simon D’Ujanga on the behalf of the government The minister said it was an obligation to ensure that Ugandans have access to cheap and reliable electricity.

Announcing the power tariffs at the Uganda Media Centre Benon Mutambi, the acting Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) boss, said domestic consumers would continue paying sh385.6 commercial consumers like shops, would also continue to pay the sh358.6 for a unit, while small industries will continue paying sh333.2, Large industries will pay sh184.8, and the cost of street lighting will remain at sh364.3 for every unit used.

“Bujagali hydropower dam is scheduled to give us the first 50MW in late 2011 and should be fully commissioned by mid 2012. This will help to reduce the current sector costs by almost a third (of the current price).”

The cost for the first 15 units (life-time tariff) remains at sh100 for every unit. On top of that, consumers will continue paying sh2,000 as the standard service fee.

The announcement followed an application from Umeme and three other firms to raise power tariffs in a bid to recoup their investments. Other firms, including Uganda Electricity Transmission Company (UETCL), Eskom, Uganda Electricity Distribution Company (UEDCL) and Uganda Electricity Generation Company (UEGCL), also applied for a review of their budgets.

Umeme, the power distributor directly interfacing with consumers, wanted domestic consumers to pay sh462.4, commercial sh455.36, small industries sh457, and large industries pay sh461 for every unit used.

“The Government commitment to continue providing subsidies in the sector; Government subsidies to the electricity sector will increase to sh488b next year, up from sh280b this year.”

ERA pointed out that there was a “notable” improvement in curbing distribution losses, which reduced from an average of 35% last year to an average of 30% this year.

The demand for electricity has continued to register faster growth in 2010 compared to the previous five years (and) demand growth for 2011 is projected at 12% annually,” Uganda has the highest electricity tariffs in the East African region. This has rendered Uganda’s economy somewhat uncompetitive regionally.

Uganda’s tourism earnings has increased from $165.3m in 2001 to over $600m by 2009, making the industry a robust source of foreign exchange this according to Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) statistics. This earning have come during the time when the coffee prices are coming down in the world market, which was one of the country’s foreign exchange.

The statistics follows the growing visitors who have been entering the Country numbering from 205,287 to 817,000 for over the past 10 years. The board points to relative peace, aggressive marketing through promotions and trade fairs as the reasons for the increased visitations. The most countries that the Visitors came from in numbering to 51,812 visitors, emerging as UK to the top Western country sending tourists to Uganda, followed by the US (42,418), while Sweden sent the least visitors (4,575). India brought in (16,238), Canada (9,186), Germany (8, 083), Netherlands (7,136), China (6,088), Australia (5,342) and Italy (5,063). Africa, Kenya’s 249,786 was the continent’s biggest number, followed by Rwanda (181,339) while Somalia’s 5,096 visitors was the least., Tanzania sent 45,278 visitors, Burundi (38,177), Congo Republic (25,774), South Africa (18,275), Sudan (16,169), DR Congo (12,495) and Ethiopia (5,096).

Tourists into Uganda usually come to experience the culture, visit national parks, and do all sorts of unique activities on offer, Cuthbert Baguma, the UTB executive director, said. “However, the mountain gorillas are a unique attraction, which at the moment can only be found in Uganda, Rwanda and DR Congo. So we get a lot of tourists for this,” he noted. In five years, Baguma reckons the tourism industry will be the backbone of Uganda’s economy, with annual arrivals ranging between 1.5 million to two million tourists. He pointed out that 50% of the tourists come to visit friends, for business (21%), holidays (15%) and others (13%). The highest number of visitors to the national game parks are non-resident foreigners, contributing 61,000 visitors, followed by students from Uganda (42,000) and citizens of Uganda (30,000). Non-resident foreigners contribute (40%), students (28%), resident citizens (20%), resident foreigners (9%) and others (3%).

However, UTB is concerned that Ugandans do not appreciate the splendour and natural endowments the country is blessed with. “Ugandans need to embrace their country by visiting tourism sites in their midst. If foreigners can come all the way from Europe and Asia to appreciate our country, why not us?” Baguma asked.

UTB has embarked on a domestic tourism campaign to increase its performance. In this, it will promote national events like the Maytyr’s and Independence day celebrations. “We are also carrying out domestic tourism media campaigns to encourage the natives to undertake tourism activities this festive season,” Baguma explained.

UTB also recently appointed Moses Kipsiro and Susan Kerunen as goodwill ambassadors to promote the local tourism industry. Kipsiro was recognised for bagging two gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in India, and Kerunen for emerging the best African artist in 2008 and at the 2009 Kora Award nominee. “We believe they will be a key marketing tool for our country,” Baguma said.

Chimpanzees, which have up to 98.7 per cent similar DNA to humans, could become extinct within 15-20 years if they are not protected, according to scientists. In Uganda, environmentalists are trying to protect those rescued from traffickers at Ngamba Island Sunctuary on Lake Victoria. The sanctuary offers the opportunity for tourists to get close to the primates.

Watching about 40 chimpanzees prance around their feeding area at the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary, playfully beckoning their caretakers to fling food their way, and then wander off into the depth of the forest after they are done feeding, it is easy to take for granted the freedom that they now enjoy in the 100 acres of rainforest within Lake Victoria.

However, all chimpanzees at Ngamba Island were rescued at different times from hunters and traffickers who could have exploited them for anything from bush meat, as part of circus groups, and as specimen for medical research. With chimpanzees having 98.7 per cent of their DNA similar to that of human beings, they are particularly coveted by researchers for testing pharmaceutical products and for use in studies on diseases like HIV/Aids.

In Africa alone, it is estimated that there were more than one million wild chimpanzees 100 years ago. Today, however, there are only an estimated 200,000 chimpanzees on the entire continent, the animals having become extinct in at least 21 (nearly half) of the African countries.

Danger of extinction; There are an estimated 4,950 chimpanzees living in their natural habitats at Budongo, Bugoma, Bundibugyo and Kibaale forests in western Uganda. Environmentalists have estimated that chimpanzees could become completely extinct in the next 15-20 years if no measures are taken to protect them.

At Ngamba Sanctuary, the rescued chimpanzees have found a home away from home on an island that was gazetted in October 1998 for their exclusive use due to the fact that they are unlikely to be able to survive again in the wild.

Most of the island, which is found about one-and-a-half hours from Entebbe by boat, is reserved for the chimpanzees. Even the little space set aside for use by their keepers is set up in an eco-friendly environment with compost toilets, rainwater collection, proper waste management practices and solar energy for electricity and hot water. This has been done in order not to upset the natural environment at the island.

While the chimpanzees have the entire forest to themselves, they return to rest in cages specially made to replicate their natural resting environments.

When making own beds, the chimpanzees are very particular animals, for instance they make their beds every night. A bundles of hay is placed on the floor every day so that the chimps can make their own nests.  Also, because the forest does not have enough food for the chimpanzees’ daily rations, are brought in by their caretakers tofeed them on fruits two times daily, and then porridge later in the day.

A special meal of millet and porridge every evening and once in week, boiled eggs are given for animal protein by the care takers.

To finance such activities, CSWCT utilizes collections from tourist visits. However, because it is not sufficient, they also receive funds from individuals and companies interested in gorilla conservation. Interestingly, while there were a few Ugandan companies that have donated money to the sanctuary, there was not a single individual.

Due to space constraints, female chimpanzees have been put on contraceptive implants to deter procreation. However, while the female chimpanzees are injected every three years, there was a curious case eight years ago when the contraceptive control given to one of the chimpanzees failed to work and she conceived. The result was an addition to the chimpanzee family at the island, which was named Surprise.

The contraceptives are, however, not meant to stop procreation forever. The chimpanzees are kept at the sanctuary with the hope that they will one day be re-introduced to the wild forests where they can procreate.

International standards stipulate that before animals are re-introduced into the wild, their security, protection against diseases and availability of food must be guaranteed.

Ms Ajarova says they are currently looking at the possibility of re-settling some chimpanzees to Rabongo Forest in the southern part of Murchison Falls National Park but this will not be done hurriedly as they study the animals with the capacity to re-adapt to like in the wild.

With the conditions at the sanctuary, however, none of the animals – if they had a choice – would ever want to return to the wild.

This article extract was got from the Monitor Uganda News paper

The region of the Virunga has receive Massif increased in population of the endangered Mountain gorillas by 26.3% over the last seven years.

The population has been estimate to have raised from 380 to 480 individuals as it has been shown by the statement made from the wildlife agencies of Uganda, Rwanda and DR Congo. The Virunga area, comprises of Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda, Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and Parc National des Virunga in DR Congo. Gorillas are also found in Bwindi Impenetrable forest National Park in Uganda.

According to the statement, the annual growth rate of the gorilla population, estimated at 3.7%, matched that of the human population in Uganda.

“The analysis of a census conducted in March and April in the Virunga Massif confirms a 26.3 % increase in the population of mountain gorillas, Gorilla beringei beringei, in this area over the last seven years, with a 3.7 % annual growth rate,” said the agencies.

The census team encountered a total of 480 mountain gorillas in 36 groups and 14 solitary silverback males in the Virunga Massif. Of the 480 gorillas, 352 (73%) were habituated (349 in groups and three solitary males), while 128 were unhabituated (117 in groups and 11 solitary males). Six teams of 72 people from Rwanda, DR Congo and Uganda, who trekked over 1,000km through the range, documenting fresh signs of mountain gorilla groups conducted the census.

The last census was conducted in 2006, in the area that estimated the gorilla population at 340 in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park almost half to the worlds Gorilla population.

The recorded number of birds in Uganda is about 1060 different species, however the one type of species know as weaver bird has been increasing of recent, Quelea birds as they are known, has reached alarming levels in north-eastern Uganda, posing a threat to the growth of cereal crops.  The survey was done in the month of the August 2009 jointly by  the Desert Locust Control Organisation for East Africa (DLCO-EA), a regional pest and vector management organisation, that indicated the population of the birds had increased in fields because of massive encroachment on wetlands.

The experts said the encroachment had deprived the birds of their natural habitat. It also stated that whereas neighboring countries in the region had controlled the birds through aerial chemical spraying, baiting, and use of fire bombs, farmers in Uganda use poor methods, such as assigning children to scare them away. There was therefore a need to carry out aerial chemical spraying to reduce the population,the report recommended.

The Districts that are affected include Iganga, Mayuge, Bugiri, Busia, Tororo, Butaleja, Budaka, Pallisa, Kumi and Lira. As this places grow majorly rice, sorghum, wheat and millet which the birds feed on mainly.

Queleas are migratory pests notorious for their grain consumption and destructive habits, which lead to great losses in farming communities. Each bird can consume three to four grams of grain daily. Over ten times that volume is wasted during the feeding process.

Evarist Magara, the DLCO-EA country representative, said although the organisation was willing to avail an aircraft for aerial chemical spraying, NEMA and bird lovers opposed this, arguing that the chemicals could pollute the environment or kill other birds. “Farmers are reporting losses of 30% to 100%. Children are being kept out of school to scare the queleas from fields.”  Magara said spraying the birds in Tanzania and Kenya was helping Uganda because the birds are migratory.

Grace Akao of the agriculture ministry said the Government had to identify a safe chemical to spray the birds before recommending the measure.