Residents want Kajiado County to take over Amboseli National Park

Residents want the national government to transfer the management of Amboseli National Park to Kajiado County.

They said this will reduce human-wildlife conflict and ensure revenue generated from the park benefits the local community.

Residents spoke on Wednesday at Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), Nairobi, during a public participation.

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The committee has been going around the eight regions to get public views on the framework for the transfer of functions of the park to the Kajiado County government.

“We believe the county can handle Amboseli National Park. We want to allay fears of the unknown like for instance people have been saying that we will not look into the environmental issues,” said Samson Oletipape who represented people with disabilities from the county.

“We want to let you know that Kajiado county can look into the biodiversity and if we as a country is a signatory to the various conservation treaties, we shall oblige to them,” he added.

Oletipape said the fact that the community has been hosting the park for a long time since the 1970s, they bear the brunt of human-wildlife conflict.

“Almost 80 per cent or more of the animals in the ecosystem are not found in the park boundaries but in the group ranches and conservancies and there will be sustainability if the park is brought back in the hands of the Kajiado County,” said James Ndirangu, a resident of Kajiado and a student at the University of Nairobi pursuing a tourism course.

For Abigael Naishorua, project leader with Free Pentecostal Fellowship in Kenya’s Maasai Anti-FGM Resilience Project in Olgululi, Kajiado county, governance and leadership issues need to be looked at first before the transfer of the park to the county.

“We need accountability and transparency. Let an independent body that is free from political interference be formed that will be in charge of managing resources from the park so that they benefit the people including those at the grassroots and also be sued to do development of water, schools among other infrastructure instead of only benefiting those at the national level," said Nashorua.

Elian Johana, youth leader Kajiado County said the transfer of the park to the county will enable many youths to get jobs.

“Two is that that failure to transfer the park by the national government will create a problem of co-existing with the community because we have generously provided one million acres towards transfer and we have over 6,000 wardens from conservancies against KWS's 25. We would not be happy if this does not benefit the community because the park generates Sh1.5 billion. But we are not seeing what the revenue has done in terms of development,” he said.

However, Jabes Okumu, programmes and advocacy manager at East African Wildlife Society said the transfer of the park is not the solution.

“KWS plays a critical role in matters of wildlife conservation and management. Its only KWS that handle human-wildlife conflict which was mentioned in the discussion and if we transfer the park, KWS will be dysfunctional because of lack of financial capability to handle the conflicts,” he said.

Speaking after the public participation, Maliti said they engaged all key stakeholders including KWS, the State Department of Wildlife, the Kajiado Governor and the county assembly on matters of tourism and wildlife.

“The issue is very emotive and one of the major issues that is coming out is that Kajiado residents are saying they have suffered a lot due to human-wildlife conflict and they are not benefiting from the park as a resource and also there are those non-residents who are saying it should not be transferred to the county since it’s a national resource,” said Maliti.

He said they will hand over the advisory to the Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary by end of August.

Maliti said they have also engaged stakeholders in matters of tourism in the national government and will issue another public participation notice to host the final one in Isiolo after they were interrupted by anti-Finance Bill 2024 protests by Gen Z.

He revealed that they have received more than 20 memorandums from various individuals and institutions on the transfer of the national park.