Crowned by Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, the Amboseli National Park is one of Kenya's most popular parks.
The name 'Amboseli' comes from a Maasai word meaning 'salty dust', and it is one of the best places in Africa to view large herds of elephants up close.
Nature lovers can explore five different habitats here, ranging from the dried-up bed of Lake Amboseli to wetlands with sulphur springs, savannah and woodlands.
Nature lovers can also visit the local Maasai community who live around the park and experience their authentic culture and even dance with their men and women.
Plans are underway to transfer the national park to the county government of Kajiado.
While some residents are in favour of the idea, others are not happy with it as they claim that the county government will run it down.
Many of the people we interviewed claimed they are more comfortable working with international organisations than the county government.
“These organisations are transparent and whatever they provide us is documented to the letter,” a resident of Olgulului, who requested anonymity, said.
Their fear is largely surrounding funding from international organisations, if the same will be channelled through the county government.
The fabric of our highly successful engagement was the stake of my people in the forthcoming transition of the ownership of the Amboseli National Park
KICKSTARTING THE PROCESS
Last week, Governor Joseph Lenku established a task force to oversee the Amboseli National Park takeover.
Tourism CS Alfred Mutua on Monday met governors Lenku (Kajiado), Patrick ole Ntutu (Narok) and Lati Lelelit (Samburu) in Nairobi to discuss the plan.
The meeting was also attended by Mutua’s two PSs, Sylvia Museiya (Wildlife) and John Olooltua (Tourism).
“The fabric of our highly successful engagement was the stake of my people in the forthcoming transition of the ownership of the Amboseli National Park,” Lenku said.
Mutua said the discussions revolved around crucial matters about tourism, wildlife conservation and promotional initiatives.
"Of great concern was the management of our national parks and reserves, with particular focus on the future of Amboseli National Park," he said.
He said they would delve deeper into the critical aspects of conservation, expanding grazing areas for animals, mitigating human-wildlife conflicts and charting the future path of Amboseli.
ACTIVISTS SILENT
Those in the conservation world have not uttered a word since President William Ruto announced that the national park would go to Kajiado county.
Ruto announced it in August while in Narok during a cultural event.
In 2005, when the late former President Mai Kibaki made such a move, it revoked rage among the country’s wildlife conservation teams.
An attempt by the government to return the national park to the people of Kajiado in 2005 hit a snag when various conservation organisations teamed up to oppose it.
In that year, the Kenya government proposed to degazette Amboseli National Park, one of Africa’s spectacular sites of global significance, into a game reserve, contravening the procedures set out in the country’s Wildlife Act.
After a five-year campaign, spearheaded by Nature Kenya (BirdLife in Kenya), the Kenyan High Court reversed the decision, declaring the move to ‘de-gazette’ Amboseli illegal.
On September 28, 2005, former President Kibaki asked the Minister for Tourism and Wildlife to publish Legal Notice 120 in the Kenya Gazettement Supplement No. 20, declaring that Amboseli National Park would become a Game Reserve.
This meant that the park management was removed from the Kenya Wildlife Service and placed in the care of the Olkejuado County Council at the time.
Concerned that the change in protection status would result in increased human use and negative impacts on biodiversity, many civil societies opposed the move.
They included BirdLife in Kenya, Born Free Foundation Kenya, the East African Wild Life Society and the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
Others were Youth for Conservation Kenya, the East Africa Environmental Network and the Kenya Tourism Federation and Wildlife.
In their view, the degazettement of the national park was illegal and would have far-reaching and potentially devastating effects.
WILDLIFE TOURISM
Wildlife tourism is one of Kenya’s main sources of foreign revenue, and Amboseli at the time was bringing in about $3.3 million a year from park fees and related tourist activities.
Many believed this money would be jeopardised if Amboseli’s National Park status was lost.
The civil societies filed two cases in the High Court of Kenya: first, to challenge the government's decision to degazette the park without following due process of the law as set by the Wildlife Act and, secondly, to set an injunction on the decision so that Amboseli would remain a national park under the care of KWS until the case was determined.
The case went through a long and protracted process, but, in 2010, the High Court of Kenya finally overturned the order to ‘downgrade’ Amboseli National Park to a game reserve, ruling that the move was illegal.
The process was a testament to how civil societies could stimulate public debate and challenge actions that threaten biodiversity.
KWS spokesman Paul Jinaro said so far, it has yet to form a committee on the takeover, adding that theirs is to implement the presidential directive to the letter.
WAR ON POACHING
The International Fund for Animal Welfare CEO and president Azzedine Downes, speaking on the sidelines of the African Climate Change Summit in Nairobi, gave his solid commitment in support of conservation, in line with their vision of having animals and communities living and thriving together.
Downes said that in the grasslands around Mt Kilimanjaro, elephants wander a habitat that is 120,000 square kilometres in scope and includes four different national parks.
He said the animals are not only critical to maintaining the health and biodiversity of the ecosystem they inhabit but also provide valuable economic opportunities for communities and governments as they draw tourists from around the globe.
Ifaw is operating in Kenya and Tanzania to help elephants and people live together.
Downes thanks the Department of Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs for their funding.
He said Ifaw is partnering with the African Wildlife Foundation and KWS to tackle poaching and wildlife trade in Kenya.
Ifaw does so, according to Downes, through facilitating community rangers with mentorship and training including with critical non-lethal supplies and equipment.
Activist Nkamunu Patita said elephants travel between parks in Kenya and Tanzania following traditional movement routes.
“In recent years, those routes have become flashpoints for human-wildlife conflicts,” she said.
Patita said local communities have shared this stunning landscape with wildlife for generations, but population growth and lifestyle changes, including the expansion of agriculture and development of the roads, has impacted the delicate balance between animals and human sharing the landscape.
It is not clear how the county government will collaborate with the many conservation organisations that are working with the local Maasai communities in the Amboseli.
They spend millions of dollars annually in assisting children from local communities to access secondary school and university.