Taita Taveta residents demand Tsavo park devolution
Elephants feeding at the Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary within the Tsavo West National Park in Taita Taveta County in January. People living around the park are in constant fear.
The residents, who were accompanied by civil society organisations led by Haki Africa executive director Hussein Khalid, said the county had been denied its fair share of the revenue from the park, which is one of the country's most popular tourist attractions
One resident, Hassan Mwaniki, claimed that the park was a source of human-wildlife conflict, environmental degradation, and land disputes in the county
Tsavo National Park is one of the oldest and largest parks in Kenya, covering an area of 21,812 square kilometres
Residents and civil society organisations (CSOs) in Taita-Taveta County have accused President William Ruto's administration of sidelining the region in terms of development and resource allocation.
They are now calling on the President to return Tsavo National Park, which covers 62 percent of the county's land area, to the county government, similar to what he recently did with Kajiado County and Amboseli National Park.
