CS Balala seeks to restructure Ministry of Tourism

Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala photo:courtesy

Three parastatals under the Ministry of Tourism may be abolished if proposals prepared by Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala are adopted.

Through a Cabinet Memorandum, Mr Balala and his Treasury counterpart Henry Rotich have come up with a National Tourism Blueprint 2030, which seeks to restructure the tourism sector.

Currently, the ministry has eight parastatals, which the blueprint seeks to reduce to six.

They include the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), Kenya Utalii College, Tourism Research Institute, Kenya Tourism Board (KTB), Tourism Fund (TF), Tourism Finance Corporation (TFC) and Tourism Regulatory Authority.

NEW PARASTATAL

In the proposal, Balala wants a new parastatal to be named Baraza Kenya to take over the management of KICC and the yet-to-constructed Nairobi International Convention Centre (NICC) at the Bomas of Kenya.

The CS also wants Kenya Utalii College merged with Tourism Research Institute and named Utalii Kenya.

He proposes KTB should be restructured in accordance with the Presidential Task Force on Parastatal Reforms as it transitions to Promotion Kenya.

The report states that the financing role of TFC will go to a proposed centralised development financial institution under Treasury while the investment promotion role will be transferred to the Kenya Investment Authority.

The blueprint creates seven regional tourism boards for Central, Coast, Maasai Mara and Amboseli, Nairobi, Northern, Rift Valley and Western.

It also creates a National Tourism Council to be chaired by the CS.