Clarification on Ongoing Kenya National Tourism Strategy Public Engagement

The Tourism Act mandates the Ministry responsible for tourism in Kenya to prepare a National Tourism Strategy outlining how the sector will be marketed, managed, and regulated. A draft National Tourism Strategy has, therefore, been developed and shared with stakeholders to invite public comments and input before it is finalized.

The strategy is essentially built around three key pillars, one of which focuses on re-engineering Kenya’s tourism product development to enhance the overall visitor experience. Under this pillar, one of the strategic directions is to enhance Kenya’s beach tourism experience. Specifically, page 50 of the draft strategy proposes identifying and designating certain beaches and islands for special concessions as imagined along global best practice.

Buoyed by this general thrust, participants in our continuing public engagement have questioned why our model should not veer off from the prevailing convention. However, noting as we do that we are governed by established policies and legislations such as the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act (2013) and the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act as well as KWS’s internal guidelines the Government remains aware that some proposals made may not feasible or even actionable.

It is important, therefore, to clarify that proposals made during public participation cannot possibly endorse any form of privatization or inform policy formulation as imputed in some social media outlets without being subjected to scrutiny as demanded by strictures provided by the law. In any case, beach land and resources remain under the ownership and management of the National Government. The private sector only provides investment, innovation, and service delivery under regulated agreements.

On that note, it is critical to state without any equivocation whatsoever that any premature conclusion alleging that the National Government intends to bend established legal provisions to engage in illegitimate creation of investment opportunities in the tourism sector is both far- fetched and can only be uttered in complete bad faith by whomsoever.

The draft strategy is available on the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife website on www.tourism.go.ke (https://shorturl.at/2kAG5). We invite stakeholders and the public to review the document and share their comments or suggestions via the following email addresses: ps@tourism.go.ke, copied to pstourism2018@gmail.com

John Ololtuaa, CBS Principal Secretary

State Department of Tourism