Kenya Members of Parliament Visit Samburu Heartland

The visit which was done in conjunction with the Office of the Speaker of the National Assembly pulled in a total of 10 MPs from wildlife related areas, plus the Minister for Natural Resources and Environment and the Minister for Lands and Settlement in Kenya.

The aim of the visit was to enable the MPs visit successful community wildlife initiatives. These includes community tourism lodges and conservancies in Laikipia and Samburu, create awareness of the opportunities and challenges of conservation on communal and provide lands, discuss mechanisms for providing greater incentives and improvement of overall conservation environment and how MPs could become more involved in conservation issues in their respective constituencies.

Some of the community projects included the famous Ilngwesi and Tassia community lodges both in Laikipia district managed by the Maasai community, Sarara Camp managed by Namunyak Wildlife Conservation Trust, a Samburu based community conservation body in Samburu district.

The MPs also got the opportunity to visit Lewa Wildlife Conservancy a privately owned ranch which has been running conservation activities for a long time.

Lewa Conservancy is one of the rich conservancies in wildlife and gearing its conservation efforts on highly endangered species such as the Grevy and Black Rhinos and Situnga.