At the beginning of last week, 30 beauty queens jetted to Uganda to represent their states in the Miss Planet International beauty pageant under the organisation of a one Ms. Monica Akech.
Monica Akech is the National Director for the beauty pageants; Miss Planet International, Miss Planet Uganda, Miss Earth Uganda among others.
It is however reported that they had the worst experience during their one week stay in the Pearl of Africa. According to Miss Planet Czech republic, Tamia Sparrow, they were robbed. They spent an entire week in Uganda without food, accomodations, activities and a place to hold the competitions. “Everything in this contest was a lie, we were scammed and we ran out of our money,” she said
“I have to apologize, but unfortunately, we were robbed. We haven’t had even 10% of activity, nothing was paid, nor our accommodation nor our food, we are stuck in Uganda. We have been trying to solve it,” She said before She successfully left with some of the queens.
She later revealed the full story after landing in her country. Through her Instagram stories, Miss Tamia revealed that during their stay, they didn’t have access to a paid hotel yet they had funded their stay here.
“At the beginning we were in an apartment 3 in the same bed with the same towel without food because they didn’t give us meals. Our sash ceremony was in the middle of a grass and the activities that were supposed to take place did not exist,” She narrates
Miss Czech Republic explains that when they we went to a hotel, they found out on the second day that the hotel had not been paid.
“The hotel kept our passports and the police were called, this Monica was taken by the police and we had to pay the hotel to get back to our countries safely on the same day that we had at this hotel. We only had one activity, they continued without giving us food and saying that we supposedly had other activities and we were just waiting.
After that, some even had to go to the police to testify. We called the CEO of this contest and after days he said he was coming. He doesn’t know how to give reasons and still hangs up our cell phone,” she revealed
According to sources, the thirty victims were not the first to face Monica Akech’s wrath. On August 19, former Miss Earth Uganda Ahlam Ismail alias Lamu, disclosed the unjust treatment that Monica made her go through during her reign. Through her social media, Lamu revealed that during her crowning, she was promised a lot of things like money, jobs, partnerships, being on projects, traveling, gadgets and many other things that she never came to see because things fell apart.
“Immediately after the ceremony, the national director failed to pay people on the team and she got into a serious debt. I was not supported by the national director, she lied to me, she tricked me, she used me, I do not understand why but she did. She promised me all these things that she failed to fulfill and now she refuses to have me at the ceremony where I will crown the next queen because the contract states that I have to be paid Shs 10 million which she wants to avoid,” she said
Over the weekend, Miss Earth Uganda, Miss Caroline Ngabire was supposed to leave for the Philippines to represent Uganda at the international level. The Miss Earth pageant is to happen on November 29.
She was however bounced at the Airport on Saturday with a dummy ticket for Qatar Airways which was reportedly given to her by Monica Aketch , the Miss Earth Uganda Director. Miss Ngabire has since been assisted by a group of well wishers and if all goes well, she is expected to leave for the Philippines today (Tuesday)