Tourism project in Hell’s gate Park raises storm

Workers in a section of Hells Gate national park in Naivasha where an investor has embarked on building a team building facility. [Antony Gitonga/Standard]

For a visitor to the world-renowned Hell's Gate National Park in Naivasha, the towering cliffs and undulating grasslands provide one of the few remaining places in the country where one can walk alongside herds of buffalo, zebras, eland and giraffes.

The park was gazzeted in 1984. It was previously grazing land for wildlife and pastoralist communities.

Located on the floor of the Rift Valley, the small park provides rich bio-diversity. It is one of the two parks in the country that allow walking or cycling without a guard.

Some of the spectacular sceneries at the park are the towering cliffs, gorges, stark of rock towers, scrub-clad volcanoes and the rising plumes of geothermal steam.

On entering the park, one is welcomed by the 25 metre-high Fischer’s Tower that rises high in the sky and which is used by novices in rock climbing.

Ancient volcano

The jagged plug is all that remains of an ancient volcano. It is named after the German explorer Gustav Fischer and the rock that offers excellent climbing is home to a colony of rock hyraxes.

However, with time, the park is slowly losing its mark due to the ongoing geothermal exploration, which, according to experts, has displaced wild animals and bird of prey.

Heavy vehicles carrying equally weighty machines crisscross the park as geothermal wells send steam jets to the sky, forcing the wild animals to scamper in all directions.

Incidentally, the Olkaria power plants and majority of the geothermal wells are located inside the park that is 100km from Nairobi.

The once galloping wild animals seeking water are now a scared bunch of creatures running away from the trucks and human beings around the geothermal rich area.

This is the status of Hell's Gate now, amid experts' warning that ongoing geothermal works could soon send the park into history books.

As environmentalists ponder over this, another major project has kicked off in the park, literally raising dust and splitting stakeholders into two groups.

An investor has embarked on developing team building and adventure activities facility in the park.

The facility will be linked to the nearby Mt Longonot Park via a cable car, the first of its kind in the region, according to the investor.

Already, construction of a swimming pool and pillars to support the cable-car has started on one side of the park, where an abandoned quarry stands.

According to the company, the main objective of both projects is to increase the adrenaline activity options available, and the two parks will be marketed as one through the cable car.

The project has, however, raised more heat than light, as stakeholders have questioned its effects on wildlife, noting that it will affect the already damaged ecosystem of the park.

The stakeholders argue that they were not involved in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and claim that the investor wants to put up an amusement park in the troubled place.

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), which runs the park, and the investor, have, however, denied this, noting that all the required steps have been followed and that the EIA was approved by the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema).

Last week, Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala visited the site and ordered the ongoing project stopped until further consultations.

The CS suspended three senior officials from KWS and ordered for investigations over the multi-million shilling project.

But it is now turning out that the project, which started three years ago, had the blessings of former directors of KWS to the current crop of management.

Documents obtained by The Standard show that the investor has already obtained a provisional licence to construct what he terms as 'a team building facility'.

The site selected is an old rangers' camp, which had earlier been approved for team building and the company has started to rehabilitate a nearby quarry and is constructing a swimming pool.

Contacted on the telephone, the project leader Kahenya Njenga, declined to speak about the project, saying the issue was being handled by the ministry.

“We have had a meeting with the CS and I wouldn’t like to speak behind his back, as he has all the necessary documents and we are waiting for his word,” he said.

But according to a contractor on the site, the proposal was first presented to the senior management of KWS and later to the KWS board back in 2015.

He terms the project as unique in East and Central Africa, with cable cars joining the Hell's Gate and Longonot parks, a move that will boost the number of local and foreign tourists.

“Presentations were well received and it was concluded that the project had merit, was viable and would boost tourism... a provisional licence was issued subject to certain conditions, including an EIA evaluation,” says the contractor.

He says that one highlight of that meeting was to scale down on the proposed zip lines and particularly to avoid the main cliff wall, which is utilised for birds of prey conservation.

 

“We believe the project will complement the adventure activities in Hell's Gate and its viable tourist economic activity that will expand and offer diversity to the regional tourism,” he says.

He denies that they are building an amusement park, a water theme park or roller coaster as alleged terming this as propaganda from a group of activists.

One of those opposed to the project is renowned environmentalists Paula Kahumbu who was among the first to raise their voice against it.

Provisional licence

In various tweets, Dr Kahumbu wondered how the investor received a provisional licence yet stakeholders were not involved.

“I thank CS Balala for taking swift action on the illegal development in Hell's Gate and this has sent a powerful message for zero-tolerance to impunity,” she said in one of her tweets.

Naivasha Professional Association boss Absolom Mukuusi questioned the speed with which the project was undertaken, noting that stakeholders around the park were caught by surprise.