Manager Edwin Muzahura has resigned his position at the agency that promotes Uganda’s tourism. Muzahura who has been at the helm of the Marketing department for the last ten years handed in his resignation this week.
This is contained in a letter he wrote to UTB’s CEO Stephen Asiimwe dated November 2. Muzahura confirmed the development to SoftPower News.
In the letter, Muzahura attributes his decision to resign to difficult working environment at UTB which has made it hard for him to ably execute his duty.
“This is to kindly inform you of my intention to resign from my position as Marketing Manager. I find it extremely difficult and unable to serve under the prevailing circumstances both at Management and strategic level”, part of the letter read.
His resignation takes effect January 1, 2018 after taking his annual and statutory leave this December.
“I shall submit to your good office a detailed report about issues that informed and formed my decision for the good of the institution and the country as a whole”, he tells the UTB Chief Executive Officer in the letter.
Although the specific reasons that pushed Muzahura to quit his job remain unknown to many at the moment, some say that he and his boss (Asiimwe) have not had the best working relationship. It is said that Muzahura was not impressed by the persistent interference and micromanagement that his department was being subjected to by the top management of UTB.
In addition, he was discontented with the meagre funding that he was being allocated to produce the desired results in marketing Uganda as a preffered destination.
In a media interview with the CEO Magazine in 2013, Muzahura said that government’s failure to fund the sector was in a way, a vote of no confidence in the people running the show.
“If government has no confidence in the management and the Board and thinks they do not have the capacity to handle the responsibility, then they should get rid of us, but you cannot ignore marketing this country and our rich potential,” Muzahura said back then.
A source at UTB who is at top management level revealed to SoftPower News that Muzahura was among other reasons frustrated by the huge pressure and targets that the Board was exerting on his department. This is in light with the persistent failure by the Ministry of Finance to deliver on its promises to allocate a bigger budget to UTB.
The same source says that UTB is faced with endless infights amongst internal cliques and that it could get worse when more money comes in.
“Many more people are going to leave,” the source disclosed to this website.
Muzahura’s resignation is a blow to efforts in the tourism sector, at a time when Uganda is beginning to invest to penetrate major tourism markets in a bid to promote itself.
Meanwhile, another staff at UTB resigned the same day Muzahura did. Mitchel Mwesiga who has been the assistant Public Relations Officer for the government agency will cease his role on November 10, after landing another job at a multinational company.
Mitchel confirmed his resignation to this site, “I resigned with good intentions. I am moving somewhere else.”
An internal memo sent to all employees of UTB stated; “Two members of staff. Mr. Edwin Muzahura resigned last evening. He has promised to share details later. We await further communication”. It added; “Mr. Mitchel Mwesiga the PR Assistant has also resigned. HR officer, can you arrange a good send off for Mitchel?”
It was not clear why UTB top management did not find merit in organising a “good send-off” for long-serving Edwin Muzahura as well.
