Rubanda District LC.5 Chairman Ampeire Stephen Kasyaba has issued a stern warning to Kigezi-based Non-Governmental Organizations against exploiting the Batwa community as mere tourism objects.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!While addressing the 2026/2027 District Budget Conference, Kasyaba expressed his concern, noting that some NGOs operating in the Kigezi sub-region, particularly in Batwa-occupied areas, were instead taking advantage of this marginalized tribe.
“It is quite unfortunate that these NGOs are parading human beings before tourists as money-making items. As a district, we strongly condemn this practice,” he stated.
Kasyaba further criticized the NGOs for encouraging tourists to “come and see how the Batwa look like,” which he described as a cruel exploitation of the minority group’s historical challenges.
The Chairman urged NGOs to focus on promoting Batwa culture and supporting them in commercializing their art and craft products, rather than exploiting their vulnerability.
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In an interview with this reporter, Amos Tugumisirize, the Executive Director of Kabale District Orphans and Vulnerable Children Living with HIV/AIDS (KADOLHA), an NGO providing health and livelihood support to the Batwa, confirmed that some NGOs were indeed using the Batwa as tourist attractions.
He explained that these NGOs parade Batwa community members to dance for visitors, often providing them with minimal food and drinks in return.
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Mr. Tugumisirize attributed this challenge to the persistent poverty that has plagued the Batwa community for years, forcing many into begging.
“They lack sufficient land, and even the little land they have is not fertile. As a result, they have resorted to begging and dancing for food,” he said.
He called for concerted efforts from all stakeholders to conduct sensitization campaigns among the Batwa and to support them in engaging in commercial agriculture.
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About the Batwa
The Batwa are traditionally nomadic hunter-gatherers who once roamed forest areas across what is now Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Over the centuries, they were pushed into smaller forest regions by other ethnic groups engaged in farming and land clearing. Despite this, the Batwa managed to preserve their traditional way of life in the forests until the early 1990s.
In 1991, the Government of Uganda gazetted Bwindi, Mgahinga, and Ecyua forests in Rubanda, Kisoro, and Kanungu districts as conservation areas, forcing the Batwa to live on the outskirts of national parks and forest reserves.
While some received land from charitable organizations, they do not hold formal land titles and often work their neighbors’ fields for a meager income, watching as tourists arrive with government permits worth $600 to visit mountain gorillas in the once familiar hills and valleys that once acted as their homes.
The Batwa community, estimated at 6,000 people with 470 in Kigezi alone, remains highly disadvantaged. Notably, when a Batwa individual graduated from university about three years ago, it made headlines, underlining their ongoing struggles.
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