Six months ago, Rosemary Odinga, the daughter of Raila Odinga (Kenya prominent Politician,former PM and the leader of Kenya leading opposition party ) gave a misleading presentation at United Nations headquarters in New york city, claiming Olduvai Gorge archaeological site is located in Kenya. This presentation was troubling at best and disgraceful at worst.
Miss Rosemary's misleading presentation has simply intensified the anger of many of us (Tanzanians) over this issue and further reinforces what is well known that Kenya is ripping off our tourist industry with its unfair tourism trade practices, mainly by misrepresenting the geographical facts of Tanzania's tourist's attraction sites.
For a long time, Kenya have consistently been advertising deceptive information that Kilimanjaro Mountain and other Tanzanian's tourist's attraction sites belong to Kenya. The impact of Kenya's unfair trade on Tanzanian people's life is real. Millions of Tanzanians suffered from poverty and currency devaluation resulting from the poor economy which handily depended on tourism (and I don't blame Kenya for all Tanzania's economic problems).
I remember back in 1998, I met a doctor who was travelling with his family to Kenya on summer vacation to tour Serengeti, Ngorongoro crater, and mount Kilimanjaro. I asked him why he was flying to Kenya instead of flying straight to Tanzania where these sites are actually located. Apparently he was misled by Kenyan tourist agent that Mount Kilimanjaro is in Kenya.
That was in 1998, when smart phones were not around, internet was luxury item, I mean the era of Macintosh and Google was barely known.
In today's world of abundance of smart phones, social media and Google search and the existence of Google map; for Miss Rosemary to think she would get away with these old dirty business deceptions is appalling, and frankly, she should be ashamed of herself.
To be fair to Miss Rosemary, we still don't know her intent to mislead the world on the geographical facts; she might have had a bad Geography teacher in College.
Miss Rosemary has eventually apologized, a step in the right direction. I hope this incident will lay the ground work for a fair business practice between two countries. Let us all move forward and work together as neighbors to strengthen our mutual interest of advancing our precious tourism industry.
THE END 3/3/16
MOHAMED MATOPE IS AN OPINION WRITER FOR VAROUS AFRICAN'S BLOGS.
