The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities is seeking for Shs10 billion to procure a helicopter which they say will strengthen surveillance and conservation efforts in the national parks.
According to the Undersecretary, Godfrey Sseremba, the aircraft will ease aerial patrols, wildlife surveillance, animal census exercises, and rescue operations, particularly for animals caught in poachers’ snares.
He says that the lack of a dedicated helicopter has made the tasks costly, time-consuming and operationally challenging.
“This money is for buying a new helicopter, not maintenance. It will help in conducting patrols, surveillance, and rescue of animals that have been ensnared by poachers,” Sseremba said.
Sseremba added that the ministry currently hires helicopters, an arrangement described as expensive and unreliable, especially during peak conservation operations.
The request is contained in the ministry’s Budget Framework Paper (BFP) for the 2026/2027 financial year.
The requests were presented by the sector minister, Tom Butime to the Committee on Trade, Tourism and Industry on Tuesday, 27 January 2026.
Members of Parliament supported the proposal saying that the tourism sector has contributed to the economy.
The committee learnt that, in 2025, tourism contributed Shs12.2 trillion largely driven by 1.65 million tourists who visited the country.
The MPs however, raised concerns about the operational capacity of Uganda Airlines, warning that disruptions could negatively affect tourism growth currently hinged on foreign clientele.
“The issues being reported about the airline are likely to affect tourism. Do you have any measures in place to cater for foreign tourists?” asked Committee Chairperson, Sylvia Nayebale.
The State Minister for Tourism, Martin Mugarra said that the has been instrumental in increasing tourist arrivals and said that the challenges it is facing need to be addressed urgently.
“Uganda Airlines now flies to 17 destinations and in 2025 it contributed about 27 per cent of our tourist traffic. There will be challenges if the carrier does not operate smoothly,” Mugarra said.
He warned that failure to stabilise the airline’s operations could undermine gains made in positioning Uganda as a competitive tourism destination.
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SOURCE: Parliament of Uganda
It seems we are good at lagging behind the rest of the world in terms of technology and innovation. We haven’t even had a chance to recover from the failure of the voting machines. It’s becoming a big problem.
How many high quality fit-for-purpose drones can be bought with that 10bn Shillings of Uganda taxpayers’ money? Using drones means the animals won’t be disturbed or traumatized by helicopter noise/wind/dust… and they are probably much cheaper to maintain or even upgrade or replace… drones can simply be recharged rather than constantly needing money for buying helicopter fuel… multiple quiet eyes in the sky monitoring everything simultaneously from one or two high tech solar powered patrol centers equiped with the capacity to act immediately.
Some years back there was a lot of uproar about the negative impact of noisy helicopters on wildlife… it was a major criticism of those wildlife documentaries. Yet here we are looking for ten BILLION shillings for a helicopter.
It seems we have a problem of lacking ideas and we seem to be allergic to the latest technologies.
Uganda zaabu.