Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 803127,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/803127/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 14,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Ngerende Conservancy in the Maasai Mara. If you want to see a beautiful cheetah, you will find it in a conservancy in Mara, Laikipia and others. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the people who have protected wildlife other than the Government include the lady who passed on recently, called Daphne Sheldrick, who had set up a conservancy of elephants in Kiboko, Kibwezi. She also managed the elephants in Maasai Mara and in Amboseli. The conservancies in Kenya possibly bring in more resources, in terms of revenue, than some of the parks because of the way they take care of their accommodation – they do it better. In fact, I have enjoyed better wildlife tourism in conservancies more than in the parks. Mr. Speaker, Sir, there is a discrepancy. While the Act signed into law in 2013 requires that part of the resource, which is five per cent of the revenue collected by national Government, should be shared in the counties where those parks are, there are no regulations even for that purpose. Therefore, I am not surprised that conservancies are not receiving any funding from the National Government. However, when the KWS requires assistance in cases where there are human-wildlife conflicts in Isiolo, Makueni or Narok, they then call the conservancies to help them. Therefore, this petition is important and I am not quite certain whether this will not need a legislative amendment. Fortunately, I am told that Sen. Kibiru is the Chairperson of the Committee on Tourism, Trade and Industrialization. Being a fan of tourism and golf, I am sure that he understands what I am talking about. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the fact that 160 conservancies in Kenya do not receive any assistance from Government is a tragedy. If you have not visited a conservancy in Tanzania up the hill – I cannot remember its name off head – but it is the best conservancy in that country. It is better protected because the national Government in Tanzania shares 60 per cent of the resources with the communities. That is why parks there do not have fences; this is because of the resources shared by their national Government. The communities protect the wildlife because they realize that if there is poaching, they will lose the resources that they are getting. This is a matter that calls for policy, legislative amendment and a little understanding around the country. I thank Sen. Halake for thinking very far for this is the best way to protect our wildlife and tourism, particularly in conservancies. I must declare my interest because we used to run a conservancy, which I hope to run in the future, where we kept beautiful lions, cheetahs and buffaloes; it is a conservancy to protect animals. My father kept wild animals that were left by their mothers in the park to die. That was the essence of that conservancy. Therefore, if the Government is to put more effort, the idea of having 14,000 pride of lions in Tanzania and 2,500 in Kenya would be addressed effectively this way."
}