Diligence earned her a chance to study again

When Immaculate Irumba completed Senior Six, she was not sure she would continue with school. Her parents had passed on while she was a little girl and she felt her guardians had sacrificed enough for her and university fees were high.

For a moment, she thought of what to do and there was not much since she had no qualifications. She decided to visit one of the tourism companies in her home town, Fort Portal.

Richard Tooro, proprietor of Kabarole Tours & Travel took her on. He told her about the tourism packages that they had, such as Amabeere Ga Nyinamwiru.

“Richard told me he could take me on since I was willing to learn. I was interviewed and I passed. My first salary was Shs70,000 per month,” she recalls. She was employed as a tour guide, which took her places.

Best foot in tourism
A year after her enrolment, she met a tourist who had visited Uganda. He was keen to visit Mpanga Falls. When they got to the falls, there was more for them to see. He was mesmerised by the plant-life there and for Irumba, this was a surprise. It was rare for a tourist to ask about plant life. All the same, she took him around.

“Mpanga Falls is one of the areas with creeping plants, and this tourist was a plant lover. My director encouraged me to take the tourist and we add it on our itinerary,” she recollects.

That was 2002 and she had also contested for Miss Tourism Fort Portal beauty pageant and emerged third runner-up. On the day she met the tourist, she was supposed to be off duty and recalls being called by her supervisor.

“I turned up in high heels and we went down to Mpanga. It is by the way close or part of Queen Elizabeth National Park. When we got there, I realised that I had never seen these plants before. I asked one of the locals to bring us its fruit which looks like a pineapple. I was excited and put off my shoes and went to pick one,” she narrates.
She adds, “The tourist was surprised and said he did not expect an elegant lady to go down.” That is how the conversation started and he became interested in her personal life. When she told him that she was a tour guide because she could not afford to further her education, he was touched.

Gets sponsorship
He asked her if she would go back to school. “He told me he was offering me a scholarship to pursue a degree at Makerere University. I told my boss about it and he told me not to waste any opportunity. I applied for a Bachelor’s degree in Tourism at Makerere,” she recalls. She enrolled for the 2005, August intake.

On top of supporting her education, he taught her how she could start out on her own. That is how the birth of Silverback Safaris came about. They built a website and she did much of the work in her room near the university.

“I was using the website to market the packages which I had learnt while working as a tour guide. I would do this during the day and in the evening I would study,” Irumba recollects.

In her third year, President Museveni called the Batooro community for a meeting and she went along. The president picked interest in her and knew the village she hailed from. She was one of the people he offered a scholarship to study a master’s degree in environment and natural resources.
When she enrolled for the course, she realised tourism depended on conservation of the environment and natural resources- plants, animals and water bodies. She recently completed her master’s degree and enrolled for an online PhD at University of Atlanta.

While studying, she has continued to grow her company. From her university room, the company now has offices in Kololo, a plush Kampala suburb. Irumba says she chose Silverback for a company name, from the dominant male among gorillas.

Doing tourism business
“When you mention silverback, people can relate with it because it is a name that rings a bell. When I started out, I used to get many bookings to trek gorillas, but as time went on, I ventured into national parks such as Murchison, Kidepo and Queen Elizabeth,” the 34-year-old tourism entrepreneur adds.
On how Irumba does business; she says is by outsourcing, from vehicles to human resource. She says this is cost effective.

She says marketing in Uganda is very expensive and offering good services has been her first and best marketing option.

“At my first work place, I made contacts. When I left, people would contact me asking where I was and I would tell them that I had formed my own company. They trusted me to handle their tourism needs. Whenever I serve someone, they usually come back because I’m passionate about my work and aim to give the client satisfaction that they expect.”

Irumba says that it is important to be flexible because some tourists will opt to change their itinerary abruptly. The need to be patient and flexible is therefore crucial when handling tourism business.

Future aspirations

The youthful entrepreneur says her job does not give back to the community, which has informed her decision to become a leader. Irumba would like to stand as member of parliament for Bunyagabu County MP.

She is walking in her father Richard Irumba footsteps, who was a policeman and entrepreneur who employed locals and left a legacy.

“I would like to develop tourism further but we need to develop the roads first so that tourists can easily get to these beautiful places. I would like to share my knowledge and work with locals,” she says, adding there is a lot value addition that can be achieved on agricultural products.”
Irumba is the first born.

The electorate have challenged her on her relationship status- she is still single. She says she has been concentrating on her studies.

“When I went to introduce myself to locals, many asked me if I was married. They told me I might get married to some foreigner and never represent them. I told them that I am in a relationship and looking forward to introducing them soon,” she adds.