New body to manage Maasai Mara Game Reserve on the way

Wildbeasts migration in maasai mara

Narok County has published a Bill to set up an authority to run affairs in the world-renowned national reserve

A long running row pitting a county government against surrounding communities and a local bank over control of revenue from the Maasai Mara national game reserve may end soon.

The Narok County Assembly is to publish a Bill that will establish a county authority to run the game reserve.

The Maasai Mara Community Support Fund Bill 2012 appears in a special issue of the Narok County Gazette Supplement No. 6 (Bill No. 1 of 2014). It is sponsored by the Chairman of the assembly's Budget and Appropriation Committee, Mr Letulal Ole Masikonde.

The principal object of the Bill is to provide for the establishment, management and administration of the Maasai Mara Community Support Fund.

This fund will allocate resources from the game reserve to the communities around it. This comes barely a year after the court terminated a deal between Equity Bank and the former Narok County Council in a collapsed ten-year deal signed in 2010, through which the bank was collecting entry fees to the reserve on behalf of the old local authority.

The council was to pay Equity Bank a commission of seven per cent on a fixed annual revenue base of Sh1.5 billion.

The agreement was terminated on June 25, 2013 after Narok County Government issued a 14-day notice to end the deal on grounds that the system was defective, and that the county was losing money and would collect the gate fees on its own.

The Mara Community Support Fund will get up to 19 per cent of revenue collected by the County Government from entry fees.

The amount will be calculated on the basis of the entry fees in the audited financial statement of the preceding year.

Also to be established is a board to run finance and investment of funds not immediately required for any purpose.

The Maasai Mara Community Support Fund Management Board will have a chairperson appointed by the Governor and six other nominated members, not being public officers.

It shall constitute committees, including the ward committee to ensure community participation in development projects at that level.

All land transactions affecting conservation of the game reserve under the wards, and lying within a radius of 5km will require the consent of the ward committee.

Situated on Kenya's south-western border with Tanzania, the Masai Mara, an extension of the famous Serengeti plains, is one of the world's most famous wildlife areas.