via ROUTES Africa: Is the Zimbabwe ruling party behind Kenya tourism attacks? Visit Zimbabwe instead …. 26 June 2014
eTN’s exclusive article about Zimbabwe smearing Kenya’s Tourism had caused quiet some attention in Zimbabwe and Kenya among tourism leaders.
It started with Kenya’s marketing agency in London, Hills Balfour attacking eTN in some internal emails to its Nairobi client, the KTB. The Hills Balfour agent in charge of the Kenya Tourism Board indirectly accused eTN to have started a dirty twitter campaign because Zimbabwe tourism was paying. (eTN: Zimbabwe Tourism is not an advertiser)
When eTN reached out to Hills Balfour in London by phone and email, a response by the agency was not received. This is surprising since Kenya Tourism is paying Hills Balfour a good amount of money to provide communication and respond on behalf of the Kenya Tourism Board, specifically in the current crisis situation.
The mystery remains, who owns the twitter account in question: https://twitter.com/zanu_pf ? Ironically the same twitter account on October 2013 posted Kenya was a safe tourism destination, same as Zimbabwe. Why is this so different now? eTN could independently validate the October tweet but believes it’s authentic.
In Zimbabwe nothing happens without a nod from the top, and the link on this twitter account is active and goes to the ruling Zimbabwe party website. All postings seemed to be included to glorify the Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe. One recent tweet today by zanu_pf said:
“:Goooooood moooooooorrrrrrnnnniinnnnngggggggg Zimbabwe! Ask not what Cde Mugabe can do for you today, but what you can do for him.”
Just yesterday zanu_pf tweeted in response to Kenya’s protest: “Truth is Kenya is an unsafe tourist destination, instead if attacking Zimbabwe they should redirect their tourists here.”
Charles imo @charles_imo responded: “tourists are white haha”
Officially at the ongoing high profile ROUTES Africa airline and airport conference in Zimbabwe Michael Riungu who is representing the Kenya Tourism Board worked hard for Zimbabwe Tourism to issue a statement in response to the eTN article.
Kenya officials asked Zimbabwe to ensure that this statement would be apologetic, and included a reassuring and welcome message from the head of Zimbabwe tourism Muriithi that Kenya is safe, mentioning all efforts Kenya is making.
Both parties had called for a press conference before the Routes Africa Conference begins.
Here is the “official” version of the Zimbabwe statement. In the meantime the Zimbabwe smear campaign continues on twitter:
PRESS STATEMENT BY THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE ZIMBABWE TOURISM AUTHORITY MR KARIKOGA KASEKE –
1. It has come to our attention that there is a story doing the rounds on the social media entitled “Don’t risk your life in Kenya – come to Zimbabwe for a safe holiday”
2. This story is being attributed to a tweeter handle @zanu_pf with some people thinking that “it is the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority with an obvious highly unethical tourism promotion on tweeter and a call to the public to re-tweet these messages containing as smear campaign against Kenya Tourism.”
3. The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority would like to categorically state that:
• It has got absolutely nothing to do with the tweets and that we are not bankrupt of marketing ideas and strategies to embark on such a cheap smear campaign.
• This is absolutely mischievous and malicious from whoever is doing that
• The timing of such action to coincide with the very successful Routes Africa Forum currently in progress in Victoria Falls begs more questions than answers.
• The official tweeter handle for the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority is @tourismzimbabwe and facebook accounts are http://www.facebook.com/zimbabwetourism and http://www.facebook.com/zimbabwetourismauthorityzta
• We have checked with the ruling ZANU PF party and can confirm that the official tweeter handle for the revolutionary party is @teamzimassetupdate and not @zanu_pf
• Zimbabwe and Kenya enjoy cordial relationships at government level and the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority enjoys the same with its counterpart in Kenya, the Kenya Tourist Board
• Further the ZANU PF Party would also not engage in such bankrupt politics
• Zimbabweans, having gone through big challenges themselves, would naturally not celebrate the challenges facing a sister country
• We indeed sympathise with the people of Kenya for the losses of innocent lives
• We have had very cordial and fruitful deliberations on bilateral relations between Zimbabwe Tourism Authority and Kenya Tourism Board premised on improved connectivity between the two countries as facilitated by the Routes Africa Forum. These include among other areas of cooperation reciprocal participation at each other’s travel show in October: Magical Kenya Expo from 08 – 10 October and Sanganai/Hlanganani from 16 – 18 October
Issued by the Corporate Affairs Department of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority
COMMENTS
Idiotic illiteracy. Yep. Advise your stupidity
Advertise your self delusion
My advert would read CHOOSE Kenya that is being attacked by terrorist or Zimbabwe where the population is terrorized by their rulers. Choose Zimbabwe YOU ARE NOT THE POPULATION SO YOU ARE SAFE. What a choice.
You are not safe from the zimbabwe police who fleece tourists at every roadblock. zimbabawe must have the most roadblocks in the world so beware visiting zimbabwe i might be cheaper to dodge bullets in Kenya.
Why does one have to choose either Zimbabwe or Kenya? Really choose Zambia or Botswana and the coast of mozambique is great if need be. Dont have to pick the two countries one run by a terrorsit and the other being subject to teerrorism.
Too long winded – must be lying.
Until the rule of law returns to Zimbabwe, until these thieving individuals have all been forced into fleeing our once beautiful country and until they compensate us for our farms that they stole from us…I will do everything possible via the various Organizations around the world that support my train of thought, to put off any foreign folk from visiting “that country”. Look at the rest of Africa today and Zimbabwe has blended in with them all…a cesspool of crime, corruption, famine, theft and political maladministration led by a delinquent lot of thieving savages. For the majority of you who continue to refer to Ian Smith as an evil man etc. etc. etc you ALL need your heads read…look how we all contributed towards building this once proud nation and look how these individuals destroyed it all in a couple of years, preferring to continue living in mud huts, walking everywhere because they cannot afford a bicycle and to see a number of individuals in the rural areas living off berries and roots, drawing water from the bilharzia ridden rivers and no longer doing so from boreholes, preparing small patches of land with a hoe as opposed to seeing tractors at work. We’ll soon see them walking around naked because there will be no skins to ware as they would have poached all the wild animals. This is a lays mans description re what has taken place in Zimbabwe and you want us folk to promote the place? Dream on!!!!
Dave
You are a racist, stop it. We all have a problem with the gukurahundis, but the way you are going about your criticisms does not help your case. Why cant you criticise these goons without being racist?
You sound exactly like many South African whites – very racist and yet you want to be counted as Africans; and just yesterday you had public boards everywhere screaming “EUROPEANS ONLY!!”. Today you are “Africans” who can not speak even one indigenous African language – how very convenient and funny too!!
White people are not the saviour of the black race; nobody asked the whiteman to come to Africa to save us – you were an uninvited lot. To think that we can trade our dignity as human beings for the material things the white man is said to have brought to Africa is utter madness.
You should not talk like white people were never savages in history. Tribalism was and still is rife in Europe. All those tribal states you created, that you now call nations came about at the expense of extreme savagery; plunder and blood everywhere.
You all lived in make shift structures before you decided to travel to foreign lands to steal resources that you used to build your so-called western civilisation. Thieves, savages and criminals is what best describes you – you are not good people at all.
The problem with you white people is that you are too materialistic – you think human life or a human being is nothing unless he creates or invents something – hell no – that is not how our world view is in Africa. In Africa, what underpins Africa and its ways is the principle of UBUNTU. UBUNTU is what distinguishes one from an animal. This is why we don’t subscribe to this nonsense of “earning respect”, that you love so much.
White people dont have UBUNTU because as far as they are concerned, what distinguishes a human being from an animal is materialism – or the love of earthly things – not UBUNTU. This is why virtually all white people will never tire of lecturing us about their building this or that; or inventing this or that.
What you forget is that most of these so called inventions in some cases are stolen knowledge from Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
You are good at stealing and modifying other people’s ideas – ideas and things that are not yours and claiming the as yours. A good example is Christainity – its origins are in Africa and the Middle East; but today we are told its a Western religion – yet there is no America or Europe mentioned in the Bible. The Bible only mentions Africa and the Middle East. Its a pity some black people have bought into this stupid colonialist nonsense.
Jesus is pictured as a whiteman. You have now even added your silly commercial idolisation such as East Eggs; Christmas trees etc, etc – things that have nothing to do with the birth or resurrection of Jesus Christ. All because of your materialistic nature.
You value money more than human life – you have messed up the world; even African dictators are now outclassing you in this because you are POISON PERSONIFIED – what a pity!!
Ha! ha! ha! Straight Shooter, you just
just fell into your own cesspit of racism!
You start out OK, deriding Dave quite eloquently,
but soon strap on that cape of deception and attack
him as he did you.
You mention not needing the whites, well the Khoi never needed the Bantu, nor the ‘n’Debel the Zulu-Shona, so get
over it, to the “Victor go the Spoils”.
You dug a racist hole and fell right into it yourself,
ha! ha! very funny!
Swagman
The Khoi, the Ndebele, Shona, Zulu or whatever are all Africans. The African continent is one-landmass for all the people who live in it. Its like a house – its one house for all who live in it and they can move into any corner should they wish.
Europeans had to cross the sea, the Oceans to land in Africa. That is the difference.
Besides, no African ever lectures the other about them having brought this or that for their benefit – its only white people who do so; and this is the source of friction between blacks and whites. In other words whites expect us to “thank them” for those material things at the expense of our human dignity – I say forget it!!
When will the gukurahundis stop dividing African people? They love doing this within and without Zim, mara why?
Remember people – whatever the Zim government does; it will always have an impact on how you as a Zim is treated by fellow Africans across the continent. It doesnt matter that you may not be a gukurahundi ZANU PF supporter, as an individual.
Knowing the character of ZANU PF – I wouldnt put such an arrogant tweet past them for sure. Remember Mugabe’s comments during the elections last year, on Zims controlling South Africa’s economy.
No wonder we are hated!!
Hey Straight Shooter and co… It’s either a major chip on your shoulder that you are finding very hard to hide or “the truth hurts”. Either way I didn’t contribute towards the destruction of “OUR” Country…yes, I’m a third generation white born Zimbabwean. So who destroyed it…oh, I assume like most Shona speaking Zimbabweans you are going to blame the West, sanctions, the white man and and and. Unfortunately, due to my farming background I am fluent in Shona and more than likely speak it better than you do and understand your customs and historical background better than you do…you too are considered invaders so don’t point fingers comrade!
You obviously didn’t notice that I mention “we all” contributed towards building our once proud Nation…in those days Rhodesia, today Zimbabwe Ruins.
Yes, I was a senior Special Forces Operative and was at virtually every foreign “camp raid”… They weren’t refugee camps. I even drove out of Chimoio in Rex Nhongo’s new Toyota Land Cruiser that had taken a 14.5 hit. Yes, I chatted to the baboon on the hill that was being used as a look out, yes I was involved in hunting down Nkomo. Yes, I worked in Zambia, Tanzania, Botswana and Moz…but that is all history and I put it behind me in April 1980 and took up Mugabe’s so called pledge to rebuild the Ciuntry during the “live in harmony” years. My best friend is a black chap, we go back to our war days together. He is the ONLY person in this world that I can trust. BUT, guess what he is from Bulawayo and he isn’t a Shona. Together we have learn’t and listened to everything there is to know about the shona’s in Zimbabwe. To put it very mildly you are an absolute disgrace to the African Continent. You gave contributed towards giving it a very bad name. Had there been a Hutu Tutsi type uprising in Zimbabwe I honestly believe the Shona would have been wiped out. Because the majority of men from Matabeleland were and have been working in South Africa for decades now earning a legal living wage unlike the Shona who took over our Country and immediately went on a massive looting, plundering, pillaging raid destroying everything we had “ALL” built up…that Comrade is your choice. But please, don’t beg our Western kith and kin for funds to feed yourselves, you are now begging the EU to help you revive the agricultural sector… What happened to your Chinese friends? There are too many foreign Organizations around the World ho will put pressure in institutions like the EU not to hand out to this scum like Chinamasa. We have a powerful say in ALL matters associated with Zimbabwe. We are putting an end to ALL foreign hunters visiting your Country, we are putting word out everywhere for foreign tourists to keep well clear of Zimbabwe. We are putting pressure on foreign mining houses not to go the Indigenius route and call your bluff…they have not to date contributed one cent to Kasukuweres Indiginization fund. AND for your information Comrade, don’t for one minute think that any one of us white folk still living in Zim have any time for you Shona’s. We have “zero” respect for you and consider you scum!!!! Yes the odd liberal foreign white individual will feel sorry for you, but who honestly cares.
Yes comrade, fortunately the white folk are in a very powerful position, have always been and will continue to play a do innate role on the global economic scene. Without us, “ALL” you Shona folk would still be living in mud huts and eating roots and berries and dressed in skins.
Could you imagine if we moved the entire African population to Europe and all the white folk from Europe moved to Africa. We could grow enough food in Southern Africa alone to feed the world for free. We would build and run the biggest Oil Refineries and Mines etc. We would be building cars in Africa for under US$259-00 each. We could produce enough power / electricity ( something most Zimbabweans have now forgotten about with youngsters under ten not knowing what it is) from the proposed Inga power station in the Congo River to electrify Africa. Solar Power Plants would be built to give you folk in Europe “free power’. Per Capita Income would average US $5000-00 per month Comrade. Every one of our children would go to a Private School of his or her choice as they will be able to afford it. Our Ship Buliding Yards and trade routes would be the ultimate and second to none. Every road throughout the Continent would be tarred. Tourism would be ahead of the Mining Industry etc. etc. etc.
Comrade…that would all happen if the white folk were in charge of Africa. Don’t turn your nose up at what I have mentioned because you only have to look at Europe and America to see what I am talking about. Instead the African has adopted the “poppy syndrome”…the minute a white man builds an empire be it farming, mining, trade and industry, the Indigenous comes in and destroys it all. Why Comrade???? Why why why why????? I couldn’t give a “continental flying fu#k” what you think of me or whether you class me as a rascist…as I said, the truth hurts!!!!!
Dave
1. First and foremost, I am not Shona, have never been Shona and will never be Shona. I respect everyone’s ethnic identity but will not accept their arrogance should they try that one;
2. I appreciate everyone’s contribution to the building of the African continent, but once you start lecturing us on how poor we would be today without the whiteman colonialism, then you are indeed crossing the line.
3. We are all victims of our past and should not be balmed for the actions of our forefathers. Conversly we shoulad also stop claiming successes of our forefathers, when we as individuas have achieved nothing of the same feat.
4. Belittling others on the basis of race tribe, religion, region or nationality is asking for trouble – I am sure you know this!!
EISH BUT STRAIGHT SHOOTER YOU WERE ALSO RUDE AND RACIST….GUYS CAN WE PLEASE ALL FORGIVE AND FORGET AND LIVE IN PEACE….NO WONDER WHY WE COMRADES ALL STRUGGLING COZ U PEOPLE ARE STUCK IN REVERSE WHEN WE SHOULD BE MOVING FORWARD IN FIFTH GEAR?????WE THE PEOPLE OF ZIMBABWE DESERVE MORE, LETS MOVE FORWARD WITH PRAYER AND ASK THE LORD FOR PEACE AND PROSPERITY FOR ALL ZIMBABWEANS REGARDLESS OF RACE/TRIBE?????