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The Nairobian

Kenya Wildlife Service hikes park fees

Business

By By Macharia Kamau | Jan 18, 2013

By Macharia Kamau

The Kenya Wildlife Service will increase charges for students and children visiting the Safari Walk and Animal Orphanage in Nairobi.

This will also include the Kisumu Impala Sanctuary. KWS has said that starting February 1, it would increase the fees to Sh100 from Sh50 for resident children and students. Charges for resident adults, however, remain at Sh150.

It said the increase in the charges was necessitated by a need to raise more money for conservation efforts at the three parks. Paul Muya, KWS deputy spokesperson said the increase was due to the need to control the number of people visiting the three facilities.

High numbers have started being a strain, which might not be sustainable in the long term. “The numbers we get are very high and the nature of the facilities cannot support them.

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“The three facilities are meant for captive animals and there is no room to expand so we have to device means to deal with overcrowding,” he said in a telephone interview. “We are also constantly reviewing our pricing to capture the market dynamics.”

He added that KWS has a memorandum of understanding with the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya – a body promoting conservation among school going children – that will see charges for members of the club remain at Sh50. The three parks are meant for public education and awareness and are mostly frequented by students.

They are among the most visited in the country and recorded much higher numbers than most of other KWS managed wildlife areas in 2011.

In 2011, the Animal Orphanage in Nairobi registered the largest number of visitors at 402 954 visitors.

The Kisumu Impala Sanctuary got 200 629 visitors while the Nairobi Safari Walk had 176 265 visitors.

The number of visitors to these three compares to other high rated parks like the Nairobi National Park that had 135 000 visitors, Lake Nakuru National Park that had 245 000, Amboseli National Park that had 167 000 and Tsavo East that got 267 visitors in 2011.

Lake Nakuru and Amboseli are classified as premium parks because of the attractions and charge higher fees compared to the rest, making them key revenue earners for KWS. KWS’ revenues grew to Sh3.8 billion in 2011 compared to Sh2.8 billion in 2010.