MASAI MARA ROAD PROMISED MORE MONEY FOR PAVING – AGAIN
(Posted 12th June 2014)
News that the parliamentary budget committee in Nairobi had allocated a billion Kenya Shillings for the upgrade of the main road from Narok to the Masai Mara Game Reserve was met with some level of skepticism, going by the feedback received from Kenyan readers and contributors. The road is a key link in the Kenyan safari circuit but has been in bad shape for years if not decades, with minister after minister making promises of the road being paved only to leave office with nothing accomplished. ‘I would like to know where all the money went. Too much money has been allocated in the past for that road and there is nothing to show for. Now they talk of another billion of our tax money. This road is giving us as much headache as the one from Voi to Taveta does. Promises promises promises and eating our money, that is all we have to show for. Who pays for the shocks [shockabsorbers] and broken springs, it is us because our governments have all failed us in providing good roads’ ranted a regular source from Nairobi as he passed the news details on last evening.
The Masai Mara is part of the Serengeti / Masai Mara ecosystem and the annual migration of the big herds of wildebeest and zebras, already underway this year, is one of Kenya’s main tourism attractions, normally bringing tens of thousands of tourists into the reserve, most of them by road. The flying option however has become more popular as a result of the poor state of the road and while more expensive also saves tourists valuable time, which they can spend on game drives instead of on bad roads giving them bad backs. Safarilink for instance has morning and afternoon departures to the Masai Mara, often operating several aircraft to serve the different airfields across the reserve and the leading safari lodges like Mara Serena or the leading camps on the adjoining conservancies like Porini, Hemingways and Olare Mara Kempinski have a fleet of 4×4’s available to pick up clients from the nearest airstrip and provide game drives with guides who know the area like the back of their hand.
Several other comments aimed at the logistics of the funding, saying that first will the budget have to be presented, debated and approved and only then can funds be allocated, clearly stretching the time frame and dashing any hopes that visitors to the Masai Mara for this year’s migration will see an instant change in road conditions.
