THE SAMBURU EVICTION MIGHT DAMAGE THE DOMESTIC TOURISM INDUSTRY

The Kenyan travel industry has been urged by the German travel industry to immediately resolution this current issue of the Samburu people who were expelled from their land because failure to do so might affect its position in the tourism business. According to findings, a lot of money is spent by the Germans in countries abroad than any other country. In the letter sent by the head of the German Travel Association commonly know as DRV to the President Mwai Kibaki, he expressed his immense concern about the situation in Kenya’s Laikipia district where so many Samburu have been forced to vacate their homeland Eland Downs as it is known because of constant aggressive evictions by Kenya’s police to an extent of burning down their houses, people are battered and farm animals are stolen in the process.

The people are being chased away from their land after this land was bought by two conservation bodies which are the Nature Conservancy (TNC) together with the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) in an effort to support the 17,100 hectares so that the Kenya government can create a new national park and be able to fuel tourism.

DRV ‘s president Jürgen Büchy mentioned  that  his people have been considering Kenya  as a very significant destination but tourism development can not be achieved at the cost of human rights as well as the local communities and this can not be supported by the German travel industry. He stands for 80% of Germany tour operators and travel agents and In 2010 Germans used up more than 60 billion Euros on overseas tours which was much more than any other country spent.

Büchy asked the Kenya’s government to make sure that the Samburu regain their land in the Eland Downs and also offer them a part of the land in the preservation of the wildlife in Laikipia. However the government has not acted in response to The German Travel Association request.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said that it is quite impressive to see that the German travel industry is looking at the issue of human rights sincerely. This is severe caution to the Kenyan government that the international community will not stomach human rights violation no matter the cause. All the Samburu should get back their land and if the government needs to use their land for any sort of development, they have got to get approval from the Samburu.

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