Dr Harrison Schmitt, Ronald Evans and Eugine Cernan were the crew that
manned the Apollo 17, the final mission of the United States’ Apollo lunar
landing programme and the sixth crew to land on the moon.
The three astronauts were on a tour of 11 countries, four in Africa and
seven in Asia, and they had chosen to take a break from their schedule and
visit Kenya.
Even in 1973, the visit by the astronauts to the country just six months
after their odyssey into space was a boost to the then infantile but
vibranttourism industry.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, East Africa was famous as a game
hunting destination owing to its wide open savannah plains, rich with wildlife
and tropical forests.
The word safari, derived from an amalgamation of the Arabic and Swahili
dialect to mean travel, is said to have originated from East Africa.
At the time, it was commonplace for visitors from the US and Europe to go on
safari, where the objective was to hunt wild animals in their natural habitat.
As the visitors went back home with the tales of the adventure, their
compatriots who went through harsh winters in previous years landed at the
Kenyan Coast in numbers.
These included the current Queen Elizabeth II, who in 1952 ascended to the
throne while at the slopes of Mount Kenya. Then a princess, she was on
honeymoon at the Treetops Hotel in Nyeri when she learnt of the death of her
father, King George VI.
So remote was the lodge at the time that it took several hours before a
pressman called in with unconfirmed reports that the King had died and the
princess was to become the new Queen of England.
Whether in search of adventure, seclusion or a way out of the harsh climate,
Kenya has been a favourite tourism destination.
Among early notable visitors to the Kenyan Coast include former US President
Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909), Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the worldwide
scouts movement and celebrated author and journalist Ernest Hemingway.
However, as the years went by, the country began to neglect the very asset
that made it stand out as a favourable tourist spot. Poaching has been blamed
as the number one disease that is depleting the country’s wildlife resources.
In the 1970s the Kenyan elephant population is said to have staggered around
180,000. Today, rampant and unchecked poaching is said to have decimated this
population to about 35,000 and the numbers keep falling.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics states that last year, as many as
360 elephants were gunned down and butchered for their tusks.
Conservationists are now warning that in as little as a decade, Kenyan
children will not be able to see a live elephant in the country.
The Kenyan rhino population, another member of the Big Five family that was
once a marketing phrase for the Kenyan tourism sector, has also
shrunk alarmingly over the past decades.
Figures from animal watch groups state that the Kenyan white and black rhino
population once stood at around 20,000. Today, less than 1,000 rhinos can be
found in the country’s game reserves and protected enclosures.
The Kenya Wildlife Service has confessed several times that the
poaching menace in the country is getting out of hand.
Lucrative business
Poaching is a lucrative business with rhino horns and elephant ivory
rivalling the price of gold in the black market.
With such high stakes, poachers have been known to take to their trade with
ruthless organisation, often eluding the authorities’ dragnet.
Kenya has also been said to have neglected conservation efforts over the
years with forests and bush-land giving way to farming, residential and
commercial development.
The result has seen intense cases of human-wildlife conflict with
significant loss of life on both sides.
Last year, the world was treated to gory images of lions killed by farmers
and Maasai herdsmen on the fringes of the Nairobi National Park.
As the country’s population is set to increase, more humans are bound to
encroach on the territories of animals in search of land to settle down and
farm.
The result of climate change has also been felt on
Kenya’s tourism industry and calls for urgent conservation efforts to
save the country’s natural resources.
Warming of water bodies and receding water volumes in Lake Victoria has led
to losses for fishermen that have run in the millions.
According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, coral bleaching on the Indian
Ocean coastline has led to a 30 per cent loss of corals in Mombasa and Zanzibar, which translates to $12-18 million in lost
revenue.
Kenya recently launched its National Climate Change Action Plan after two
years of analysis and consultations with environment experts and scientists.
The Kenyan Government in partnership with international donors like Unep Danida
and UK-Aid will fund the plan.
By Frankline Sunday, The Standard
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