Narok Governor, and CoG Chairman, Tourism and Wildlife committee during meeting for the CECs and directors in charge of tourism and wildlife, January 29, 2018. [Photo/CoG]
"Address by H.E Governor Samuel Ole Tunai, Chairman, Tourism and Wildlife committee, and Governor of Narok County during a consultative meeting for the CECs and directors in charge of tourism and wildlife at Sarova Panafric hotel on 29th January 2018.
Ministry of Tourism Representatives,
CECs for Toursim,
County Directors Present,
Tourism stakeholders represented,
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Good Morning,
First, let me start by congratulating all the CEC Members as well as Directors of tourism from all the counties for your appointment. I pleasantly know that you are equal to the tasks for which you were appointed.
Many of you may not have been in the tourism docket during the last five years. This means that you have to check records within your departments and liaise with the Council of Governors to apprise yourselves with various steps we have taken thus far, and which direction we have to move from here.Secondly I owe a debt of gratitude to all the tourism stakeholders who have made this consultative meeting possible, and for being important pillars in the progressive transformation of tourism in Kenya.
Devolution enables us to work with communities, as counties and with the Ministry of Tourism, so that we plan locally and reach out globally. There is no second-guessing of the fact that we are united in purpose, and driven by the common aspiration to make strategic progress in the tourism sector within our respective counties, and as a country.
Our individual counties may have varying priority elements with regard to tourism, but our common interest is to see how we can synergize and reach out to the domestic and international market of tourisms for our commodities.
We therefore gather here from the 47 counties not as gatekeepers of tourism, but as goal-keepers and vision enablers for transformation of the sector.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
The constitution of Kenya under the fourth schedule allocates tourism functions between the national and county governments. The national government is responsible for developing policies on tourism as well as the protection of animals and wildlife, while County Governments are tasked to deal with cultural activities, public entertainment and public amenities which include museums, sports and cultural activities as well as county parks, beaches and recreational facilities.
Tourism as you can see is a shared function and we need to collaborate and cooperate with the National Government as envisaged by Article 6 (2) of the Constitution, in order for us to achieve all that we hope to achieve in the next five years and beyond.
And beyond working with the National Government, we need to form strategic partnerships with organizations that are already working hard to promote and publicize tourism.
I will to single out the Tourism Fund for accepting to sponsor this event. These partnerships and others will enable us show Kenya and the world on the Kenya we have not discovered. As you are aware, a globalized tourism marketplace means that the same products are available throughout the world.
This means that we need to explore the uniqueness of our products, and scale up our outreach to potential tourists creatively and innovatively.When we look all around us, there is no doubt that the state of tourism is still so much worrying. We need strategic approaches to confront the challenges facing the sector, from the ecosystem, policy and structural issues, and manpower.
We haven’t done much to protect, conserve and sustain the entire ecosystem that makes wildlife sustainable, to make tourism be even more profitable. We haven’t done enough to save the lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras and rhinos by totally containing poaching in all our parks and reserves.
Many challenges exist, which we cannot shrink from.We need to involve the youth in these activities. We need approaches to explore travel bloggers, new media engagements, global media spaces, and reach out to all those ends of the globe who have not heard of Kenyan tourist destinations and products.
In the next 5 years, we need to work very hard to promote all forms of tourism in Kenya, county by county, and nationally. Each county has unique tourism products, from cultural, sports, scenery, and wildlife among others.
Let us encourage young talents in our counties from which they can earn a living, and put our counties on the map. We have to encourage, and step up promotion and advertising of our products, including cultural tourism. We have to involve ourselves in major activities in each county. We have to advertise and attend festivals such as the Turkana Cultural festival, Lamu festival and the Mandera derby.
We need to promote the attractions that are not very well known such as Wasini island where the culture has not yet been polluted. For the counties that have been working on the bead-work initiative, I would like to encourage you to move fast, and make significant market breakthrough.
Be sure to comply with the relevant laws and protecting the indigenous patterns/ initiative and bead work through intellectual property law measures. From this forum, we could create small working committees, each handling certain thematic issues of focus, for easier coordination.
Let us make the next 5 years very significant in the tourism industry, and let every effort of ours count. As the Chair to the Tourism and Wildlife Committee, I am readily available for consultations any time.
I wish you the best of luck as you manage affairs of your department, and altogether, I wish you great deliberations."