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The Aga Khan schools, once some of the best in Uganda, have moved to rebuild their history.
The Aga Khan Educational Service (AKES) in Uganda has set aside Aug. 16-18 for 'homecoming' activities to bring together former students of its 15 schools.

AKES chairman Amin Shivji said yesterday that the homecoming is meant to inspire the current students of the Aga Khan schools in Uganda, through interaction with successful alumni.

'We also want the alumni to assist the current students with books, career guidance and scholarships,' Shivji told journalists at Aga Khan High School.

The Aga Khan University (Uganda) of Nursing will be opened today. This was disclosed by the Academic Head, Imelda Bagambaki. The university is situated along Makerere Hill Road opposite Aga Khan Primary School.
Bagambaki told reporters that the university will display to the public equipment that the institution has acquired.

The ceremony will also involve a demonstration by students, tour by parents, visitors and supporters of the institution.

The Aga Khan has urged Muslims to strive to create a better future for the young generation. The Spiritual Leader of the Ismaili Muslim Community was yesterday presiding over the 60th anniversary celebration of the Uganda Muslim Education Association (UMEA) at Kibuli Mosque.DISTINGUISHED VISITOR: His Highness the Aga Khan (L) with Prince Kassim Nakibinge at Kibuli Mosque yesterday (Photo by James Akena).

TICKLING POINTS: President Yoweri Museveni holds a meeting with the visiting His Highness the Aga Khan at Parliamentary Buildings on Wednesday [ August 4, 2004?].Museveni, Aga Khan hold talks.

Parliament has approved the speedy divestiture of Nile Hotel International Limited through a 30-year concession to Serena Tourism Promotion Service SA, a subsidiary of Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development.
State minister for privatisation Peter Kasenene appeared tickled on Friday by the positive mood in the House over the divestiture.

He told MPs that when Serena invests US$19m in the hotel, it would be possible to hold a boxing tournament at the conference centre. He said by using switches and electronics rooms could be joined and chairs moved.

Serena Tourism Promotion Services (a subsidiary of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development) has signed a thirty-year lease concession agreement with the Government of Uganda and agreed to invest US$18 million investment for extensive refurbishment and upgrading of the former Nile Hotel which will re-open in September 2005 as the Kampala Serena Hotel.

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has expressed gratitude to the Aga Khan Group of Companies for bringing a professional hotel investment and management system to Uganda.
The President on Thursday received Prince Amyn Mohammed Aga Khan at State House, Nakasero, a statement said.

Amyn Mohammed is the young brother of the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the Ismailia Community.

President Museveni will be displaced as Nile Hotel begins renovations.Finance minister Gerald Sendaula announced yesterday that the $19 million (Shs 37 billion) renovation of the hotel complex would require tenants to give way.

The renovation - the first in a two-phase process - kicks off on February 11, the day government will hand the complex over to Serena Hotels to run it for 30 years.

Parliament has approved the speedy divestiture of Nile Hotel International Limited through a 30-year concession to Serena Tourism Promotion Service SA, a subsidiary of Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development.
State minister for privatisation Peter Kasenene appeared tickled on Friday by the positive mood in the House over the divestiture.

He told MPs that when Serena invests US$19m in the hotel, it would be possible to hold a boxing tournament at the conference centre. He said by using switches and electronics rooms could be joined and chairs moved.

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni on Monday held discussions with the Aga Khan, Imam (spiritual leader) of the Ismaili Muslims, at his farm in Kisozi, Gomba County in Mpigi district.Museveni and the Aga Khan, a big time multi-sectoral investor in Uganda, discussed ways of promoting the tourism industry to further enhance country's national economic development, a statement issued by the Presidential Press Unit (PPU) said yesterday. The Minister of State for Investments, Sam Kutesa, of Regional Co-operation, Col. Kahinda Otafiire, and the managing director of Uganda Investment Authority, Dr.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200401150416.htmlNew Vision (Kampala)
January 15, 2004
John Eremu
Kampala

Contractors Await Nile Hotel Tenders

Prequalified firms are expecting substantial contracts after Serena Tourism Promotion Services of the Aga Khan signs the $19m concession for the Nile Hotel complex today.

The hotel has not had a major refurbishment in well over a decade. Sources say plans are to upgrade its facilities, which will also involve considerable refitting and re-modelling. This will raise the hotel's standards synonymous with the much respected Serena name.

The Serena Hotels interests in acquiring the Nile Hotel complex dates way back to 1993, Mahmud Mohammed, the Tourism Promotion Services (TPS) chief said on Wednesday.
'We have been trying to get into Nile Hotel. We always believed that our success would be in having a total East African presence,' Mohammed said.

'This property has a great location and has great potential. By 2005 September, this hotel will be the flagship hotel in Uganda. It will be springfield for tourism because the industry's potential needs to be rediscovered,' he said.

THE Government has offered to give the Aga Khan a hospital that can be transformed into a medical teaching facility.
President Yoweri Museveni recently directed Kirunda Kivenjina, the Minister in charge of the presidency, to identify three hospital sites that could be handed over to the Aga Khan for his consideration.

Leonard Chemonge, Kivejinja's aide, said this in a statement issued to clarify a New Vision story, which quoted the minister as saying the Aga Khan would build a medical school in Busoga.

A new university should bring smiles on the faces of Uganda's doctors, nurses and teachers.His Highness the Aga Khan yesterday named these professions as the main focus of a proposed Aga Khan University in East Africa campus in Kampala. The Aga Khan was jointly with President Yoweri Museveni addressing a press conference at State House, Nakasero, in Kampala.

His Highness Prince Aga Khan Shia Imami Ismaili Council for Uganda held a bazaar on Sunday to raise money for the internally displaced people in northern and eastern Uganda.
Energy minister Syda Bbumba presided over the ceremony held at Kyadondo Rugby Ground in Kampala.

Handing over the gifts, which included mattresses and blankets, Bbumba thanked the Ismaili community for the bazaar.

'This is a very good gesture,' she said.

'It's a bridge on which government can build.'

His Highness Prince Aga Khan Shia Imami Ismaili Council for Uganda held a bazaar on Sunday to raise money for the internally displaced people in northern and eastern Uganda.
Energy minister Syda Bbumba presided over the ceremony held at Kyadondo Rugby Ground in Kampala.

Handing over the gifts, which included mattresses and blankets, Bbumba thanked the Ismaili community for the bazaar.

'This is a very good gesture,' she said.

'It's a bridge on which government can build.'

The Aga khan Foundation is to build a multi-million medical and nursing university, the minister for the presidency has said.
Kirunda Kivejinja said the university would be built either in Jinja, Bugiri or Kamuli district.

'Jinja seems to have a comparative advantage, taking into account the infrastructure and human resource,' Kivejinja said.

He said the institution would produce health personnel who measured up to international standards.

Kivejinja was meeting Jinja district leaders and the management of Jinja hospital at the hospital superintendent's office on Tuesday.

Serena Hotels a company owned by Aga Khan is investing US$19m in rebuilding of Nile Hotel International.
The Privatisation Unit (PU) on Friday opened the financial bid from Serena Hotels.

'The management is providing a commitment fee of $1.2m and will be paying four percent of the rental income every year which ranges between $ 238,000 and $554,000,' the PU director, Michael Opagi, said during the function held at Communications House.

He said the company is also providing $3m performance bond issued by Barclays Bank of Kenya.

THE Aga Khan plans to construct academic centres of excellence in Kampala, reports Richard Mutumba.Education and sports minister, Kidhu Makubuya and Minister for General Duties in the Premier's Office, Mondo Kagonyera, were recently in Mombasa to attend the launch of the first academic centre of excellence.
The ministers also held a meeting with the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims. The academies will be like schools for the elite class.