Uganda Safari Woman Kidnapped
Uganda Safari Woman Kidnapped: The kidnap of an American citizen woman during a safari in Uganda was such loud news all around the world. This happened on 2nd April 2019 in the southern part of Queen Elizabeth national park, also commonly known for the tree-climbing lions. It all started well for Kimberly Endicott, an American female citizen, who had booked a gorilla and wildlife safari with one of the safari operator companies in Uganda. but later, on the third day of Kimberly’s safari in queen Elizabeth national park, also one of the most visited national parks in Uganda, the merry safari story took a wrong and dark turn when Endicott and her safari guide were kidnapped by a bunch of armed men. Many authors wrote about the kidnapped American citizen during the safari in Uganda, and others made bold the headlines of safari news all across the world for the kidnap of Kimberly and the safari guide, by the name of mierenge. However, there was another elderly Canadian couple in the same safari vehicle that Kimberly Endicott and mirenge were, but anyway, these where just left in the park with the vehicle closed with no keys, what a thrill in the most dangerous part of Queen Elizabeth national park?
From a number of sources and authors, it was realised that the kidnap was aiming a ransom of about USD5000. However, the release of the duo, Endicott and mirenge, a round top sum of USD3000 was paid after a protracted time of negotiations. It is believed that the money which was given to the kidnappers for the release of Kimberly and mirenge was covering up the costs for the five days that the kidnappers held the duo hostage in eastern democratic republic of Congo. The sources tell that the kidnappers might have been not Uganda, but had a great plan and had followed up on Kimberly form bwindi impenetrable national park where she started her safari, with gorilla trekking.
Later on Sunday, Kimberly and mirenge were rescued by the Uganda police and transported by an helicopter back to the capital city of Uganda, Kampala, and Endicott was handed over to the American ambassador at the American embassy in Kampala. The kidnappers went with some of the belongings from their victims, such as a phone, little money, cameras among others, also the kidnappers used one of the victim’s cell phone to call and demand for ransom from the police. The good thing, it was money that motivated the kidnap, and Kimberly was unharmed, however, mirenge has bruised meaning he might have been kicked by the rude and sacred kidnappers.
From Kimberly’s own words, she still believed that Uganda is a beautiful country, and that the kidnap was just a jinxed safari experience. Endicott Kimberly narrated the whole story to Gayle king of the CBS This Morning, on Friday when she got back to the states. Endicott still narrated and was amazed by the mountain gorilla trekking in bwindi impenetrable national park, as the two little gorillas even came close and touched her. “I had already realized it was a good luck even before the guides told me it was”, Endicott gladly explained to the interviewer. She says, that at first she though the four gun men where just park rangers, not until she realized that they were just rag tags, and that is when they forced her and the other people to sit on the ground. Endicott however, was keen an realised that her captors hand has shaking meaning he was also scared of what he was doing, this is when she tried to humanize the kidnappers. The great news is the kidnappers offered safety to Kimberly and mirenge, plus food for the four days they spent in captivity.
After all, the rescue was successful, however, the captors all ran away, but the Uganda police continued to look and investigated for the bottom of the whole kidnapping plan. Later, some of the people in the kidnap plan where arrested by the Uganda police. However, the kidnap of Kimberly and mirenge, was a blessing to Uganda tourism sector, and a bad experience for the wild frontier tour operator company, and mirenge. From the analysis of one of the authors, shows that the gig drama of the kidnap made Uganda and mountain gorilla trekking famous and known in the whole world. It is also believed that the kidnap surged up tourist arrivals to Uganda, due to the top slots it won in one of the best media platforms in the whole worlds. However, all the countries that validated travel of their citizens to Uganda safaris, just warned them to exercise high degree caution to avoid theft, majorly in urban centres.
Also the kidnap was an eye-opener to all that did not know the 67 year old queen Elizabeth national park. a lot of media from the international press went ahead to describe Queen Elizabeth national park as one of the most beautiful destinations in Africa among the national parks in Uganda and others on the African continent. The media was also good to Uganda when it picked the good comments by indigo Ellis, a UK bases research firm specialising in global risk analysis, who commented that tourist kidnaps are not known in Uganda, and are very rare. This somehow made Uganda to be appreciated and opened doors for more international tourists into the country. therefore, the exposure of Uganda after the kidnap of Kimberly Endicott and the aggregated media coverage was such a rare incident to Uganda, but it was a great mileage for the tourism industry for the pearl of Africa, and hopefully, the tour operators used and still utilize that as a chance to magnify the uniqueness of Uganda among the African tourist destinations.
