Kenya: Taita Taveta to Retain 50% of Revenues Raised From Tsavo National Park - Ruto

23 July 2023
Capital FM (Nairobi)
By Sharon Resian

Nairobi — President William Ruto has acceded to a petition by Taita Taveta County to have a quota of revenues raised by the Tsavo National Park allocated to the devolved unit.

Speaking during a church service on Sunday, Ruto directed the Ministry of Wildlife and the Kenya Wildlife Service to convene a meeting and develop a matrix for the implementation of the new directive that will see Taita Taveta retain 50 per cent of revenues generated by the park.

“We want you to enjoy the benefits of the national park in your county,” the Head of State said.

He further said the Kenya Wildlife Service will allocate 40 per cent of opportunities during the recruitment of rangers to communities hosting national parks and reserves in an affirmative action plan.

The Head of State was responding to a petition by Taita Taveta Governor Andrew Mwadime who decried the prevailing system as unfair noting that national reserves take up over 60 per cent of the land mass in the county, yet the national government retains all the monies raised.

“The constitution in the country equalizes everyone in the country but our county is different as a vast amount of people’s land in this county is in the park and the shares from it is not equal to other counties,” he said.

“We have held several talks with the intergovernmental organizations, and we seem not to come into an agreement but if you intervene, we believe we will get a better share from what we are getting now that will compensate us.”

The county has been over the years at loggerheads with the KWS pushing for the Tsavo East National Park to be converted to a game reserve and its management handed over to the county.

In 2019, the Taita Taveta County Assembly passed a motion seeking to push the KWS to remit to the county at least 30 per cent of the more than Sh60 billion collected annually from the park.

The move has, however, presented a dilemma on how revenue would be divided among the counties bordering the larger Tsavo National Park which includes Tsavo West National Park.

Apart from Taita Taveta, Tsavo also borders Kitui, Makueni, Kilifi, Kwale, Tana River and Kajiado counties. Almost all the seven counties have rooted for a pie from the park.

Read the original article on Capital FM.

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