By Moyiga Nduru
NAIROBI, Feb 2 1998 (IPS)

Ethnic unrest in parts of Kenya has dealt added to the woes of its tourist industry, which has been grappling with other ills as it struggles to recover from years of depression, tour operators here complain.

In a statement made available to IPS on Feb. 1, the Kenya Association of Tour Operators urged the government of President Daniel arap Moi to urgently restore security in the troubled Rift Valley Province to prevent a further decline in tourism.

At least 61 persons have been killed in the past two weeks in the districts of Njoro and Laikipia, according to media reports on Monday. Nyoro and Laikipia are near the famous Maasai Mara Game Park and Lake Bogoria, which is popular for its springs and flamingos.

“We were this year hoping for positive publicity and a good image abroad, but our reputation has instead been further tarnished by the clashes in Laikipia and Njoro,” said the statement.

The tour operators’ headache began last year, when the country’s main tourist destination, its Indian Ocean coast, was wracked by political violence. The cost to the tourism industry — in the form of lost revenue — was 18 billion shillings, according to the association.

(One US dollar is equal to 60 shillings).

Tourism is Kenya’s second foreign currency earner after agriculture. It represents more than 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and employs at least 350,000 people.

Normally, more than 750,000 foreign visitors travel to Kenya each year, but according to the director of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), David Western, there has been an unprecedented slump in arrivals over the last few months.

“Figures released by the Kenya Tourist Board estimate that visitor numbers for the latter half of 1997 fell by 60 percent of expected holiday arrivals. The loss in tourist earnings over the period from mid-1997 to mid-1998 is likely to reach 280 million dollars,” he said in an advertisement placed in newspapers here.

He attributed this to “the skirmishes experienced in the Coast province, the uncertainty running up to the (Dec 29) election and most recently El Nino with its attendant floods, destruction of infrastructure and spread of disease”.

According to Western, the KWS, which is wholly dependent on earnings from visitors for its recurrent income, has been hard hit by the downturn. “Gate collections over the period September to December 1997 ranged between 30 and 60 percent of the projected income of kshs 80 to 100 million per month,” he said. “With the tourist slump not expected to improve until late in 1998, the revenue losses incurred call for large and immediate austerity measures,” he said.

Western said the measures the KWS would be forced to take included dismissing 567 workers, putting the hiring of new staff on hold, and tightening financial controls. He expects the exercise to reduce the projected operating budget for 1998 by about 20 percent.

“Despite the severity of these austerity measures, KWS will not cut back any essential services. To the contrary, additional funds will be spent to beef up anti-poaching and other security operations, and to rehabilitate national park roads once the present flooding subsides,” he said.

Another setback for the tourism industry is an outbreak of Rift Valley fever in parts of the country. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta last week warned travellers to Kenya and Somalia to protect themselves from the haemorrhagic fever.

The outbreak has affected people and domestic animals in remote parts of north-eastern Kenya and southern Somalia, following heavy rains since late last year.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said there had been as many as 300 deaths in Kenya in the past few weeks and an unknown number in Somalia.

“Large losses of domestic animals, especially goats and cattle, are also reported,” said the CDC. It urged travellers to the two countries to use liberal amounts of insect repellant, wear long-sleeved shirts and long trousers, and use bed nets so as to limit their contact with infected mosquitoes and other biting insects.

Preliminary results indicate the Rift Valley fever virus is responsible for many of the cases of haemorrhagic fever recorded in Kenya, according to experts.

Rift Valley fever is viral disease commonly found in sub- Saharan Africa. It is transmitted primarily by infected biting insects and occasionally through contact with the blood or body fluids of infected animals.

Despite all the problems, Kenya is still a good destination for tourists, says Minister for Tourism and Wildlife Henry Kosgey. “Kenya still has a low crime and violence rate compared to most other tourist destinations,” he told tour operators here over the weekend.

In the case of the Rift Valley violence, he said tourists should not fear because the government had deployed security personnel in the affected region to protect Kenya’s tourism interests.

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