Chatty, happy and forthcoming. It was easy to start a conversation with Sharon Ireeta Kasigwa because much as we had never met, I had heard about and followed her exploits in mountaineering. She had read some of my writings and seen my photography.
So, during this year’s Magical Kenya Travel Expo at Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi, a mutual friend, Emmanuel Kintu, a Ugandan-born video content creator based in Kenya, introduced us.
It was a pleasure meeting Kasigwa, a banker whose love to see new places, scale hills and mountains and meet new people led her on paths that kept drawing her away from the banking halls.
But until she gave in, albeit unintentionally, the 13 years in three banks contributed to the building blocks that were later to fortify her foundation in the travel and hospitality sector. She was excellent at customer service from the point of entry into banking and as she rose to senior ranks of management.
Kasigwa confesses she did not plan to end up in tourism, but destiny was calling. She would board a bus or matatu, plan trips with or for friends.
“It was adventurous and exciting. Well, if Bob Marley thought that the beauty of music is that when it hits you, you feel no pain, travel infects you with therapy so good that you just want to keep opening new pages in the big exploration book,” She recounts.
She opened the first travel pages thanks to her mother who worked at Coffee Marketing Board (CMB) and was transferred to Kasese. Her mother’s friend took Kasigwa to Queen Elizabeth National Park.
At the time, the youngster had only heard about the park in the Social Studies (SST) classes. Her other intriguing experience was sitting by the window of the train to see rivers, papyrus and nature on her way to the village in Kamwenge, Ibanda.
At 10, she might not have envisioned a dream of starting a tourism enterprise that would take people for leisure trips to explore and learn about places. Looking back, Kasigwa perhaps appreciates that seed of affinity for travel was sowed and only kept blossoming as she grew from a child into a teenager, and adult.
She started Nkwanzi Travel in August 2021, when Covid-19 had broken out and many people were cautious about their movement.
When the effects of the pandemic eased and travel restrictions were eased too, people needed to go out and refresh their minds. That is when friends reached out to Kasigwa seeking advice on where to go and what to do.
Her social media platforms were active, and she would post about her experiences at different places so her friends were confident to trust her to organise their trips.
“My friends had lost a paternal uncle. Both their parents are in their 70s. The family of six children who are married and all together have 14 children. It was a group of 28. My friend proposed that they needed to have a family get-together. So, they asked me to recommend four places for them to choose from,” Kasigwa recollects.
She prepared various itineraries, and they chose Fort Portal and Queen Elizabeth. She named it the Tooro-Kazinga Adventure and inserted pictures. When they saw it, they called Kasigwa asking for the account number to make their initial deposit.
She had been doing such itineraries on a pro-bono basis, but not this time. Her friend wanted her to turn her passion into a business venture. Her friends did not want to drive and asked her to find a vehicle for them and a driver, and book places where they would reside.
That is when it dawned on Kasigwa that she had a database of contacts.
“I started fidgeting. I went to the website of URSB and registered a company, but most names were taken. I ended up with Nkwanzi which was confirmed in September 2021. I opened bank accounts and went to register with Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) and by the time their trip came in December, we had done two trips to Mount Elgon, three trips to Jinja, islands, Kampala city tours that included the Hindu Temple, St Balikuddembe Shrine, Munyonyo Martyrs Shrine and Namirembe Cathedral,” she narrates.
Nkwanzi was officially born. Nkwanzi are beads in western Uganda, so enkwanzi are pearls as Uganda is the Pearl of Africa.
“It is well-represented in our logo together with rivers and water plants. Our forefathers used to give out beads and gifts in appreciation for beauty. That is why they used to wear them around the neck, ankles, waist, head and some tribes would use the beads to identify the bride in the marriage rites,” the Nkwanzi founder explains.
She adds that Nkwanzi Travel handles inbound tours in Uganda, East Africa and beyond. Their main focus is three aspects, adventure mountaineering, primate safaris, and cultural heritage.
“We have many mountains which are not even talked about in social studies. We are gifted with gorillas, blue monkeys and above all we have a unique culture and heritage which we proudly sell because it is not found anywhere,” says Kasigwa.
I ask her how many mountains she knows and lists the mountains of Karamoja; Moroto, Kadam, Napak and Morungole which have existing trails.
“In Northern Uganda, there is a mountain above Pader and Kitgum. In the West Nile, there are Nyeri and Oche, there are mountains in Zombo. When you go to the South western, people call it Mufumbiro but actually, they are the Virunga volcanic mountains whose dominant range is Mount Muhabura of the eight. We share them with DR Congo and Rwanda.”
She has scaled all the mountains aforementioned and currently has Nyeri on her to-do list, along with Mountain Slayers, a hiking club with which she would like to take a break from work. Kasigwa wants to switch and go as a tourist and not a tour operator.
Like that, she occasionally chooses to still enjoy travel as a passion and hobby and experiences what it is like being on the receiving end of a tourism service. It was partly for the same reason that she attended the Magical Kenya Travel expo.
Kasigwa wanted to find like-minded tour operators to share values in terms of customer experience, passion, empathy, integrity and creativity.
“So, companies from Mombasa, Nairobi, Tanzania, Malawi, South Africa, Rwanda that have such values are the ones that we are looking to partner with in business so that we can share Africa before the world,” she says in an interview. And in creating synergetic partnerships, Kasigwa believes that there is always an opportunity to learn and improve.
For example, breaking the norm that you can safely drive tourists to a destination such as Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, but miss the opportunity to sell the other attractions along the way or during the journey which could give a tourist a reason or more to extend their stay in Uganda or recommend it to their circle of friends, family or associates.
