Tourism is a very exploitative industry if respective countries do not put in place appropriate mechanisms to cushion the vulnerable groups at the end of tourism value chain. Kenya our beloved county is one of the very few countries that have left their poor vulnerable communities to be exploited by the rich multinational chains and the Wenyeinchi (The elitist and exploitative few).
Many rural communities often in remote areas – are isolated from information on industry and lack the necessary financial capacities to hire technical services and other strategic expertise to protect their interests and rights when they engage with the private sector.

Their capacity imbalances at dialogue/negotiation table make it impossible for them to articulate their communal needs and values, protect their communal resources, their intellectual property rights, their cultural heritage etc as these noble traditional wealth seldomly fit into corporate profit equilibrium.

The consequences of the above sorry situation is that many communities are easily shortchange by the private sector and find themselves alienated from their ancestral land, their fishing grounds, their shrines and areas of spiritual significance, their strategic dry season dispersal areas etc. These real-estate ends up in the hands of third parties who convert them for touristic businesses with no reasonable returns accruing to the communities.

Tourism therefore has continued to sustain poverty in rural Kenya while on the contrary growth in the sector is recorded at the macroeconomic level with the elitists smiling their way to the bank.

Take for example a farmer in the Masai Mara. The great migration of the wilder beast heralds unprecedented losses to him. The beast calf in their land and poison it with the deadly malignant cater disease which exterminates countless cows and they are never compensated for it. The migration brings with it countless tick loads that no amount of spraying can help. These people loose lots of their cattle to preditors i.e. lions, hyenas, jackals, leopards, cheaters’ etc without any form of compensation given to them. They cannot farm on their fertile well watered land because the wildlife will decimate their crops etc. Their children never go to schools because of wildlife attacks etc. the most regrettable thing is that besides them shouldering all this tourism and conservation costs, they get northing from tourism to discount them.

Kindly sign this petition and protect the livelihoods of the Kenyan communities who beside being custodians and owners of the tourism product, are not recognized by the Tourism Bill 2010 and no mechanism whatsoever are put in place for them to get commensurate returns proportionate to their contribution to the tourism industry.

#7: Ole Taiko Lemayian - COMMUNITIES SHOULDER THE COSTS OF TOURISM AND NEVER GET COMMENSURATE RETURNS