Posted on Monday 1st October, 2007
THE THIRD AFRICAN HERITAGE DAY
to benefit
FRIENDS OF THE NAIROBI NATIONAL PARK (FoNNAP)
and
THE BIG CATS RESIDENT IN THE PARK.
And to announce KWS plans to open a new gate to the Nairobi National at the old Marimbeti Train Station on Mombasa Road.
Date: October 6, 2007
Time: l p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Venue: THE AFRICAN HERITAGE HOUSE, ATHI PLAINS
Transport by the new diesel engine and renovated restaurant cars by RIFT VALLEY RAILWAYS. departure 1 p.m. Nairobi Station
Guest of Honour: American Ambassador to Kenya, Mr. Michael Renneberger
Entertainment to be presented by the German Ambassador to Kenya. Mr. Walter Lindner and African Heritage host Alan Donovan
THE CHALLENGE
On December 5th, 2004, 600 people arrived at the African Heritage House, overlooking the Nairobi National Park, on the original Kenya-Uganda Steam Train. Proceeds from that First African Heritage Day and the Second African Heritage Day in 2006 went to protect the lions and other big cats of the Nairobi National Park. Through a fund administered by The Wildlife Trust and The Wildlife Foundation, payments are made for livestock that fall prey to the lions and other carnivores when they go out of the park in search of food. Although we have pledges for this Lion Protection Progamme from several donors, this fund is nearly depleted. We need your help!
No where else in the world can there be seen such an abundance and variety of wildlife bordering a major city. Nairobi, with a populaton of 3 million and growing fast, adjoins the park. The park itself is relatively small, just 117 square kilometres, but part of a much larger ecosystem stretching down into Tanzania. If the park is to retain its unique character and biodiveristy, it is essential that migratory routes continue to flow through the park. Only a few years ago, up to 20,000 wildebeest, along with the attendant zebra, hyenas and other animals, seasonally migrated through the park. It was an awesome spectacle. This year there was only a remnant of the former migrations that in years past covered the park from horizon to horizon (see photo above). About 2000 wildebeest got trapped in fenced areas and several of them were hit by trains when they tried to find their way into the park from the fenced side of it.
Since the First African Heritage Day, international donors have offered their help and support toward preserving the dispersal area connected to the Nairobi National Park by paying landowners to remove fences and buying lands to create a larger conservancy area. However, we in Kenya, must demonstrate that the Nairobi National Park and its wildlife is our most precious heritage.
We must also preserve and protect the borderlands which ring the park to assure these lands are used for purposes that will benefit the park economically and environmentally for the enjoyment of future generations. Several tourism projects are now proposed on remaining borderlands, including small unit hotels, camps, residential areas and local tourism sites.
However, to make such plans a reality there needs to be immediate access to the Nairobi National Park from the lands bordering the Nairobi National Park along the Mombasa Road. In this respect, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) will announce plans to move the old Cheetah gate from the very degraded, polluted site at Athi River to the old Marembeti train station on Mombasa Road. This will mean that guests at hotels and other tourism facilities being planned on the borderlands, at LuKenya, in Kitengela and other sites will be able to travel across the Nairobi National Park to Wilson Airport where they can fly to any destination in East Africa, and return to the same site via the same route. After completing their safaris, guests may then travel back to JKIA, ony a ten minute drive from the Marimbeti Station and the borderlands sites, including the African Heritage House. Rift Valley Railways is planning to introduce a luxury hotel train from Nairobi to Mombasa with stops at both the African Heritage House and the Marimbeti Station. This will revitalize the Nairobi National Park with new constituencies, new facilities and new sources of support and thus revolutionize the tourism industry in Kenya.
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