Samboja wants revenue share from Tsavo East and West and other KWS park or site in the county

Taita Taveta governor Granton Samboja. FILE

Taita-Taveta Governor Granton Samboja ask for a revenue
share from the parks and urged the Senators to speedup his petition
seeking to enforce Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) to share revenue
collected from the twin Tsavo national parks with the county.

Appearing
before the Senate County Public Accounts and Investment (CPAIC) on
Tuesday, Samboja restated that the petition will liberate his people
from what he termed as “suppression occasioned by KWS.”

“When
my government appeared before this committee in 2019, I sought the
assistance of the Senate on a matter that is dear to our people.
Taita-Taveta County government has had a challenge in the division of
revenue collected from the Tsavo National Park, which forms the largest
part of the county government landmass,” the governor said.

“The
county notes with concern that despite Article 69(1) granting our
people access to revenue generated from natural resources, no guidelines
have been put in place to ensure that our people benefit from the
revenue collected from the Tsavo National Park,” he added.

On
May 16, 2019, Samboja told the committee, then chaired by Homa Bay
Senator Moses Kajwang’, that his government had written numerous letters
to KWS to search avenues on how to share the revenue raised from the
parks, but the state agency went mute.

More than 65 percent
of the land in Taita Taveta is occupied by the Tsavo ecosystem, with
another 24 percent occupied by private farms and rangelands while only
less than 12 percent is left for locals.

The Prisons
Department occupies about 1,000 acres near Bura trading center along the
Mwatate-Taveta road, and another 100 acres in Voi town, which had been
invaded by thousands of squatters.