Taita Taveta residents demand Tsavo park devolution

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.

This comes after President William Ruto announced a 50-50 revenue-sharing arrangement between the national and county governments. 

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.

“We are tired of being treated like second-class citizens in our own country. We want the government to devolve Tsavo National Park to Taita-Taveta County. This will enable us to benefit from the tourism sector, create jobs for our youth, conserve our wildlife and natural resources, and resolve the historical injustices that we have suffered for decades,” Mr Mwaniki said.

He said while a large part of the land had been taken over by the park, over 20 percent was within the ranches, leaving the residents with a small area to settle in.

He urged the President to listen to the grievances of the people of Taita-Taveta and grant them their constitutional right to self-determination.

"The government should consider our cry because we have for many years been discriminated against in terms of us owning land," he said.

Mr Khalid said the move by the President is discriminative to the region.

"The other national parks are the same as the Tsavo but it's discriminating to see Taita-Taveta is being given a 50-50 share while the rest are being devolved to the counties. This is discrimination of the highest order," he said.

He also said the government should ensure that locals benefit from the wildlife compensation programme, claiming that some of those who benefited greatly were non-locals.

"It was so discouraging to see that some victims of human-wildlife conflict received peanuts in the last compensation programme. After waiting for many years some received less than Sh1,000 as compensation yet they had incurred huge losses through invasions by wildlife," he said.

Mr Khalid's claims, which have previously been raised by local MPs including Abdi Chome (Voi) and his Mwatate counterpart Peter Shake, have raised questions about the efficiency and transparency of the County Compensation Committee.

"Some of those who were compensated are not known to the residents and received huge amounts of compensation. The government should investigate these claims and as an organisation, we will also follow it up," Mr Khalid said.

He vowed that they would use all available means to ensure that the residents benefit from their ancestral land. 

He was speaking at a press conference in Voi town, where he was accompanied by residents of Mkamenyi who are in dispute with Voi Point Limited over thousands of hectares of land used for sisal cultivation.

One resident, Henrietta Gombe, accused leaders in the area of failing to use their authority to prevent land grabbing in the area.

She accused politicians of using land as a campaign tool to woo residents during elections, but failing to keep their promises once in office.

"We are always being lied to by the politicians that they will resolve our land issues. Our land is being taken and sold out by grabbers and the leaders are doing nothing about it," she said.

Ms Gombe urged local leaders, including Governor Andrew Mwadime, Senator Jones Mwaruma, MPs and County Assembly members, to reclaim grabbed land from the grabbers.

Tsavo National Park is one of the oldest and largest parks in Kenya, covering an area of 21,812 square kilometres. It is divided by a road and railway into Tsavo East and Tsavo West. It is home to a variety of wildlife, especially the Big Five, which attract many tourists and generate revenue for the government.

Animals such as elephants, lions, buffaloes, giraffes, zebras, rhinos and leopards can be found in the park. It also has scenic attractions such as the Yatta Plateau, Lugard Falls, Mzima Springs and Lake Jipe.

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