Tourism CS Miano opens game parks for free on World Tourism Day

The government has granted Kenyans free entry to all game parks and game reserves on Saturday, September 28, as the country marks the UN World Tourism Week from Monday.

Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Miano on Sunday said the move was aimed at promoting domestic tourism and enabling Kenyans to sample and enjoy the country’s heritage.

Kisumu County will host this year's tourism week, which will be attended by government and county officials.

“The culmination of this crucial event will grant Kenyans free access to any of our game parks and reserves for free on Saturday the 28th of September 2024,” Ms Miano said at Sereolipi School in Samburu County on Sunday during the ceremony to mark World Rhino Day.

The CS urged Kenyans to turn out in large numbers to discover what the country has to offer in its parks.

“I encourage Kenyans to show up in their numbers but also implore them to observe the laid down rules as they tour the parks and reserves teeming with wildlife to avoid any hazards,” she said.

Tourism and Peace

The UN World Tourism Day 2024 is focused on highlighting the vital role of the tourism sector in fostering peace and understanding between nations and cultures and in supporting reconciliation processes.

This year’s theme is Tourism and Peace.

On rhino conservation, the CS said that Kenya had made efforts to save rhino populations and other wildlife for posterity.

“At the Ministry level through the relevant organs, we have adopted novel technologies such as the use of drones and forensic evidence to up our ante in rhino conservation… I assure the global community that Kenya will continue to play her rightful role in wildlife conservation while laying special emphasis on rhino range expansion and conservation.”

Kenya is an important rhino habitat, hosting 80 percent of the eastern black rhino subspecies found in eight realms nationally.

These include the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, Sera Community Conservancy and five private sanctuaries within the Laikipia area. Laikipia, for the record, is home to more than half of Kenya's total rhino population.

“The implementation of the past six editions of the rhino recovery action plan and the seventh edition currently underway has enhanced the regeneration of the black rhino populations by more than 100 percent,” she said.

Wildlife census

From a population of less than 400 in 1989, by the end of 2022, the rhino population estimates stood at a staggering 1,890 rhinos, 966 black, 922 white and two northern whites.

Kenya’s black rhino population is ranked third after South Africa and Namibia.

There is a likelihood that Kenya’s rhino population will exceed the 2022 numbers once the ongoing national wildlife census is concluded, the CS said.

“Kenya is proud to host the world’s only remaining female Northern white rhino following the death of Sudan in 2018 whose stuffed figurine is quartered at the Nairobi National Museums as an enduring relic of an iconic freak of nature in our wide-ranging stock of wildlife species,” she said.

“Meanwhile, I am glad that—the Wildlife Research and Training Institute — together with other researchers around the world are working to bring the northern white rhino back from extinction. This daring and truly commendable feat—itself akin to reversing fate — hopes to produce northern white rhino embryos from genetic material and eventually implant them in southern white rhino females to sire calves.”