The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Cross Cultural Foundation Uganda-CCFU, has started a nationwide campaign to sensitize leaders in new cities on the relevance of safeguarding heritage sites for future tourism purposes.
According to CCFU, they have documented heritage sites ranging from old buildings with unique architectural designs, which will act as study fronts for future generations, with limited knowledge on the stance of construction in the olden times.
CCFU’s Deputy Executive Director, Fredrick Nsibambi says that, most of the tourism destinations in parts of Europe and United States of America have conserved their old historical infrastructure, which draws billions of dollars into their economy.
Nsibambi said that their campaign is aimed at rallying both technocrats and political leaders to draft ordinances, which will make it hard for developers to demolish old buildings and change their original architectural designs, but rather refurbish them to be habitable.
He noted that if there is no law in place, a number of museums, cultural sites and historical buildings will continue to vanish in the name of modernity and development.
He also said that the new cities should draft plans of aggressively marketing these old buildings as desirable tourism sites.
Citing Uganda’s first stored building in the country, known as the Madhivani building, constructed in 1919, Jinja City Speaker Bernard Mbayo said that, they liaised with the developer, who agreed to renovate the structure and preserve it for future referential purposes.
Mbayo also noted that, the same building was documented as on one of UNESCO’s heritage sites, which has since increased it’s recognition across the world, with series of engineers benchmarking on it’s durability and unique architectural designs over the years.
He added that, the city’s tourism office has registered a big number of foreign and local tourists who throng the building to not only appreciate its uniqueness, but also the history of being the first stored structure in the country.
Mbayo adds that prior to their elevation to a city status, Jinja municipal council then had documented all uniquely structured buildings and overly drafted bylaws geared towards deterring their destruction, but efforts of pushing for related ordinances are underway.
He argues that such efforts will boost the underlying efforts of marketing Jinja city as a desirable tourism destination, with unique heritage sites largely appreciated by both local and international tourists alike.
Jinja City Deputy Town Clerk, Peter Mawerere says that they have registered an increase in the number of tourists visiting old buildings. He added that there is need for increased sensitization of developers on the importance of conserving old buildings not only as heritage sites, but also as tourism income earners.
Last year, Parliament passed the Museum and Monuments Bill 2022. However, the President returned it to Parliament with suggestions that sites such as Kilembe Mines in Kasese and Ocerei Gold Mines in Nakapiripirit District be deleted from the list.
The bill is aimed at developing, managing, and maintaining museums and monuments and formalizing, controlling, and protecting tangible and intangible heritage and works of art collection.
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