Repackage Kampala’s food tourism

Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) recently successfully held a ‘Food Street’ Festival. Uganda has potential to double its tourists. They may come for Kampala culinary tours of street food, but end up touring the rest of Uganda. Let us properly repackage Kampala’s food tourism. Kampala has conducive weather and is relatively secure.

Local and foreign tourists will have a reason to check out street food spots. The beauty about street food is that it will always be a cheaper option to any tourist. Kampala has quite a number of historic and cultural sites that can be blended with unique street foods. Has anyone thought about luwombo-inspired street food lanes around Kasubi or Lubiri palace? There are also opportunities to make and sell souvenirs about street foods in Uganda. Also think about Rolex Chapatti-inspired key rings or sculptures.

If you move around Kampala and its suburbs at night, you will find local street food vendors in Ntinda and other places. Ugandan food is still largely natural and unique because of our diversity. Each tribe or region in Uganda has at least three unique foods that can be bought by curious local and foreign tourists.
Tourists will likely try it out on the streets. A tourist can spend any amount of money for any experience because each staple food has a story of the people in Uganda.

Cooked field rats have helped boost Cambodia’s tourism. We have every day foods like millet foods, roasted cow blood, offals, grasshoppers, and matooke. We can have more than 1,000 local foods. People will pay highly just to see how grasshoppers or a Kashera is prepared.
KCCA recently held a food festival, but this was merely a one-off. Let us think long-term. Let us set aside designated street food selling lanes in the central business district operating 24/7. It is high time we started thinking about setting up the world’s biggest street food village. The street food lanes must be accessible by the current transport systems like the Kampala sight-seeing buses, commuter taxis, and passenger train.

There must be categorisation of street food lanes into insects only, snacks, local food zones, etc. That way, those interested in insects can go straight to what they are looking for. We already have existing Kampala markets like Wandegeya, Nakasero and Owino that have delicious local food sections, but the experience there is different from the one on the street.
KCCA should work on an annual food festival calendar that is shared publicly. Tour agents should have an idea of how many street food festivals are there and when they are held in a year to interest their clients.

Tourists should be made to know that besides the daily street food kiosks, there are also annual food festivals and no one would want to miss that experience.
Rolex festival has grown against all odds and so are festivals like pork, ice cream, Luwombo, Blankets and wine.
Ivan N Baliboola,
[email protected]