HOW MISS UGANDA PAGEANT GAINED BACK ITS GLORY AFTER YEARS OF FALLING APART

In the last few weeks, the Ugandan community has been celebrating the tremendous achievement of one of our girls that did participate in the Miss World pageant competition and she managed to do very well by becoming the fourth runner’s up and also becoming the winner of Miss World Africa.  

Today   I would like to give some facts about what actually did change about the Miss Uganda Pageant that made the positive change in the competition and then ultimately managed to put Uganda out into the world around us. 

In the few years, Miss Uganda was a very big brand and at that time it was being organised by one of Uganda’s top Fashion designer and enthusiast who is called Sylvia Awori. 

During those days very many corporate companies were throwing lots of money into the competition and it became an event that was always on the calendars of the lovers of fashion and people who are always fashion enthusiasts.  

Then things started to happen when Sylvia Awori left the pageant and decided to start doing something else.

 Another woman who is called Brenda Nanyonjo took over the Miss Uganda brand and started hosting the show and this was the time when some funny things started to happen in the pageant. 

Some of the people were claiming that the winner of the Mss Uganda Pageant at the time had bought off the crown after paying the judges some large sums of money.  The investigations into these allegations did not bear any serious fruit.

 There were also rumours that the girls were being used sexually by some of the organisers and these allegations were also killing the brand very fast.

 One girl who emerged as the winner of the Miss Uganda Pageant was Phiona Bizzu and she was criticised by various people for not actually being beautiful and some people mocked her claiming that she had actually bribed her way into winning the crown.

 After all this mess in the Miss Uganda pageant, one would ask What then did change about all this that we managed to get someone who went as far as she could and made history in the Ugandan context as becoming the first woman to go as far as becoming the Miss World Africa and emerging as the fourth runner’s up worldwide. Well, here is what actually changed and made the difference in the pageant.  

Miss Uganda 2018 was organised by a team that was determined to select the best girls that could compete worldwide.

 The organisers were being led by one Ugandan movie director and producer who once worked in Hollywood as an actress and this gorgeous woman is called Nana Kagga. 

She has been one of the judges on the Miss Uganda Panel and then she was also joined by Ugandan socialite and business woman Zari Hassan and Zuena Kirema who was one of the Miss Uganda contestants in the past. 

 These group of judges were very strict and they weeded out and screened properly all the contestants and there was no favouritism in any way.  

They took these girls through very many training sessions and gave them different challenges that they could try to overcome and this built confidence among the girls.  

They took them through the different behaviours that real models need to develop so that they can appear good and with good etiquette in public. 

They examined these girls in terms of their talent, their command of the English Language and also their command of their culture.  

The best girl was chosen and this was after the contestants had been picked off from the various parts of the country from the Northern, Eastern, Western and finally from the Central part of Uganda.

 These were the regional competitions that were organised around the country.  

During the regionals, the best contestants were selected and they were invited to represent their regions in the grand finale for Miss Uganda that did take place in Kampala. 

In the grand finale the best girl was chosen and she managed to represent her country in the African Pageant where she emerged the winner and went to compete with other girls around the world. 

We are so happy to receive the first woman to make history in Uganda at the Miss World Pageant where she turned up and became the first winner of Miss world Africa. 

This woman is called Quinn Abenakyo. You are welcome and thanks to all those people who gave her the necessary support, the sponsors and even the judges who did select her to represent Uganda at the Miss World Pageant of the year 2018.