Travel
Monday, March 10, 2014
Tanzania locks out Kenyans
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - Several Kenyan tour operators are not happy at the outcome of the recent Arusha tourism ministers meeting, because key issues like closure of the Bologonja border post were not discussed.
The Kenyans say the continued closure of the border post at Bologonja forces tourists van drivers to make a roundabout five hour drive from Maasai Mara via Sirari (Tanzania) border point to get to Serengeti.
Speaking to East African Business Week, the Kenyans, who preferred anonymity said this was a missed opportunity to make savings in time and money.
The border post has been closed for nearly 40 years.
The Kenyans say politics plays a great deal in this matter, because their Tanzanian colleagues reply that it is a government protective measure to protect Tanzania jobs.
Some Kenyan tour operators opt to drive back to Nairobi for an overnight stopover before proceeding to Arusha via Namanga the next day to drive on to the Serengeti.
For Kenyan tour players, the decision to open the Bologonja crossing would dramatically reduce travel time and costs between the Maasai Mara in Kenya and the Serengeti in Tanzania.
Tanzanian officials maintain that the area is a World Heritage Site and needs to be protected from excess traffic of vehicles in order to shorten the route within the vast extended animal migration parks.
Northern Serengeti is also home for six famous tourist attractions—the Lobo Valley, Upper Grumeti Woodlands, Mara River, Lamai Triangle, Wogakuria and the Bologonja Springs
Bologonja Springs is in the remote reaches of the Northern Serengeti. The water from these springs forms the headwaters to the Bologonja River, which meanders northwest across the wide-ranging landscape of the Northern Serengeti until it unites with the Mara River.
Bologonja Springs is also the site of the Bologonja park gate; just 16 kilometres to the north of this area is Kenya’s Maasai Mara game reserve.
Prior to the border closure in 1977, it was possible to drive freely between the Serengeti and Masai Mara.
This would have seen as a restriction and an inconvenience for those travelers wishing to conduct both a Tanzania and Kenya safari during the same trip. However according to many conservationists, the border closure has also helped to keep the Northern Serengeti incredibly pristine.
The Bologonja is a clear stream. The main highlight of the Bologonja Springs area is the Bologonja salt lick (also called the Larelemangi salt lick).
This is located just a couple miles downstream from Bologonja springs and is a special haven for all kinds of wildlife.
The Larelemangi salt lick also lies in one of the Serengeti’s great buffalo areas.
Uganda has long complained in Tanzania, they don’t allow tourist guides from other countries to access their tourist sites.
One must use a local Tanzanian guide or tour operator. In Kenya, Ugandan tour operators pay up to $300 per vehicle while in Uganda, it is free entrance.
Present in the Arusha meeting were Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism, who is also a Chairperson of EAC Council of Ministers, Phyllis Kandie; Lazaro Nyalandu, Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism of Tanzania and the Minister of State for Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities of Uganda, Agnes Egunyu Akiror.
Through a series of talks they committed themselves to seeing the tourism sector grow equitably.
Last year, in August, Ugandan officials in the tourism sector meeting in Bujumbura, Burundi complained Kenya and Tanzania were sabotaging free movement of tourists by retaining disguised protectionist policies to protect their tour operators from regional competition.
By Leonard Magomba, Monday, March 10th, 2014