Sorry I got to the party late.

I’m sometimes a bit reluctant to post info here because I’m concerned my comments might be interpreted as commercial, which they’re not intended to be but I’ll try to clear up some of the confusion and hope I don’t say the wrong thing.........I’ll also hope my server talks to the Aussie servers for long enough to post this. Often they don’t.

The problem with the press is that many/most journalists often don’t know much about the subject they’re writing about and the speed of the internet means other media suffer the same problem and before you know it, that lack of knowledge can race around the world and possibly do immense damage. In this case, it could easily destroy an entire fragile and emerging hunting industry.

I’m not a leaseholder up there and nor would I ever want to be one but I have been involved in a variety of other ways (mostly advisory) for several years. I’ve met all of the leaseholders and most of the top end of the game dept staff and because of that, I was offered and took the opportunity to operate up there.

I was in the country when the so called suspension letter was issued (and fairly quickly withdrawn) and was hunting with the approval and permission of the game dept a day or two after the letter was issued etc. Consequently I was probably one of the few well informed westerners on the ground at the time.

This issue embarrassed a number of high ranking people who don’t appreciate that kind of thing and as you can imagine wanted to correct the situation asap.

Uganda hunting does have it’s minor(ish) problems (As does most other African countries) and will never be as big as Tanzania simply because of the quotas and species distributions/populations etc but it could be a very good hard currency earner for the country, could be of immense benefit to both the game animals and peoples of Uganda and it does offer the wildest of wild African hunting for adventurous hunters.

The sport hunting template they have up there is also the most responsible and conservation minded one I’ve ever seen (by far) in over 30 years of being involved in the hunting industry and certainly all of the game dept staff I’ve ever met up there are very knowledgeable and keen for sport hunting to succeed.

I do however feel that we need to treat such a new and emerging industry with a great deal of care and hope that the media will check their facts before they publish.
Let’s face it guys, African countries do stuff up occasionally and it’s all part of life. Tanzania suspended lion hunting without warning a few years ago and then reintroduced it after a few days. This was a similar thing and (IMO) not much more.

TAB as they say. – That’s Africa Bwana.

Hope that’s cleared up the confusion and if anyone feels the need to know what’s truly going on, they can always contact me to ask. I’d suggest email rather than PM because my server often forgets to tell me about or deliver PMs.

Here’s a much more responsible and accurate piece of reporting:

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/...clq0n7z/-/index.html

Mapesa beats Otafiire in legal battle over UWA

By Ismail Musa Ladu & Alfred Nyongesa Wandera (email the author)

Posted Monday, November 8 2010 at 00:00

Kampala

The High Court has ruled that the current board of the Uganda Wildlife Authority was irregularly appointed and must be disbanded. In a ruling on Friday, Justice Yorokamu Bamwine said Trade Minister Kahinda Otafiire had appointed unqualified members to the board, including its chairman, Dr Boysier Oumar Muballe.

The ruling follows a petition by Mr Moses Mapesa, the sacked UWA chief together with his senior colleagues– Andrew Koluo and Apophia Atukunda, who accused the minister and the board of maliciously kicking them out.

The petitioners argued that the board meddled in the running of UWA and witch-hunted staff who opposed the board chairman’s poor management style.
They told the court that Dr Muballe and four other members of the board, including Masokoyi Wasswa and Jacob Oulanyah were unqualified to sit on UWA board and were mismanaging the wildlife body. Justice Bamwine ordered Gen. Otafiire to appoint the UWA board of trustees in accordance with the qualifications set out in the relevant legislation.

Board dissolved
The court also dissolved the Dr Muballe-led board and restrained them with immediate effect from acting in their current capacities. Justice Bamwine further ruled that Mr Mapesa and Ms Atukunda’s contracts were unlawfully terminated and awarded Ms Atukunda Shs30 million in damages for the dismissal.

However, the judge ruled that he could not grant Mr Mapesa all his unpaid emoluments for the five-year contract on the grounds that he had no valid contract that was terminated. But the judge added that he left the matter to the new properly constituted board to review Mr Mapesa’s credentials and decide whether or not to re-appoint him. Court ordered that the applicants’ costs be met by UWA.

Earlier, Parliament had also rejected Gen. Otafiire’s request to have them discuss a report on a forensic audit into UWA. The MPs described the report by Ernest and Young as “rubbish” and only aimed at justifying the minister’s irregular appointment of the UWA board which has plunged the hitherto progressive wildlife body into unprecedented management crisis.

The report inaugurated by Gen. Otafiire implicates Mapesa and some of his senior management team of corruption and mismanagement at UWA. But the MPs said the report was malicious and largely aimed at ensnaring Mr Mapesa.

The lawmakers also said the report is not binding because it was not sanctioned by the Auditor General and that it did not give hearing to the accused.

While sacking Mr Mapesa, Gen. Otafiire said he had failed to alert the authorities about the existence of rebels in Bwindi and Semliki parks in western Uganda. But MP John Emily Otekat defended Mr Mapesa saying: “Some people in the board working together with senior people in the ministry fired Mr Mapesa because they want to dip their hands into the money that is available at UWA.”