Moroto faces hotel room crisis ahead of Museveni, Kenyatta visit
Mt Moroto Hotel, is one of the hotels in Moroto Municipality. Photo by Steven Ariong
What you need to know:
- Food prices have also been hiked from initial Shs17,000 per plate (with chicken and all food) to Shs30,000.
- Meanwhile, security has been beefed up with several policemen and soldiers carrying out patrols day and night in the streets of Moroto Municipality and its surroundings.
An acute shortage of hotel rooms has hit Moroto District due to a big number of people who have travelled to the area to witness the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cross border business by President Yoweri Museveni and his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta.
The heads of state will on Thursday September 12, 2019 sign a MoU on free movements of pastoralists and resource sharing along Turkana-Karamoja border.
The event which will take place at Naitakwae Play Ground in Moroto Municipality, has attracted hundreds of people including foreign dignitaries.
After signing the MoU, the two heads of the state will tour some of the projects that government of Uganda has done as a way of fighting draught in Karamoja.
In a survey carried out by this reporter last weekend, it was established that most of the hotels in the municipality plus those in the neighbourhoods, were booked in advance by people that are expected to accompany the two heads of states.
The visitors who went to Moroto from different districts have resorted to getting rooms in other districts such as Nakapiripirit which is 98 kilometres away from Moroto, while others have got hotels in Kotido District which is 110 kilometres away from Moroto.
The development has however benefited the locals mostly in hotel business. The hotels that used to charge Shs30,000 and Shs50,000 per a single room have now increased the prices to Shs100,000 and Shs200,000 respectively. Double rooms can now be rented at Shs300,000 per night from the initial Shs200,000.
Ms Grace Nachap, a hotel proprietor said it's the first time that they are also benefiting from government functions.
"Am very happy as hotel proprietor because this is the first time we have also benefited from a government function," she said.
Food prices have also been hiked from initial Shs17,000 per plate (with chicken and all food) to Shs30,000.
Meanwhile, security has been beefed up with several policemen and soldiers carrying out patrols day and night in the streets of Moroto Municipality and its surroundings.
