LAIKIPIA – A KEY AREA FOR WILDLIFE BASED TOURISM
(Posted 05th August 2017)
The Kenya Wildlife Service has come a step closer to launching a new park in the heartland of Kenya, often referred to as the former ‘White Highlands’ after a court in Nairobi passed judgement on a 17.000 acres piece of wilderness land bought from retired President Daniel arap Moi to the organization.An eight year long court case concluded that claims by so called international human rights groups and local ‘advocates‘ lacked merit and dismissed their suit.
Both KWS and Laikipia are battling presently with perception issues, the former over the shenanigans of still chair Richard Leakey – who in the opinion of many has outlived his usefulness in this position – and the latter over an almost 18 months long series of conservancy, ranch and farm invasions which saw several tourist camps and lodges burned to the ground, leading conservationists shot at and nearly three dozen people killed including high profile conservancy owners.
This form of domestic terrorism has for long been downplayed in the face of the now imminent elections, when authorities treaded softly on the marauding so called herders who turned out to be nothing else but a bunch of loose cannon bandits serving the purposes of individuals out to grab land by hyping up their own agenda.
Be sure to watch this space about progress to establish this new park as and when additional information becomes available.
