Tours and Travel Agents Protest over Hiking of Park Fees
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 7 – Tours and travel agents staged protests outside the Tourism Fund building on Thursday in Nairobi as they demand for Abolishment of 8.5% gateway fee, use a realistic exchange rate, involve stakeholders genuinely, give reasonable notice and obey court rules.
At the heart of the dispute is the Kenya Wildlife Service rollout of a new digital park entry payment system, the abrupt implementation, allegedly without stakeholder consultation, has drawn sharp criticism across the tourism value chain.
Operators argue that, while modernisation and transparency are necessary, the timing and execution of the new model have caused financial disruption and uncertainty.
“As tour operators, we support conservation and digital efficiency, But this policy was introduced overnight and many of us already have confirmed bookings with fixed prices, We can’t adjust those so we end up absorbing the extra costs, which leads to losses”, they said.
Under the new structure, only M-Pesa and Visa payments are accepted – posing logistical challenges for large group bookings and corporate tours that typically rely on bank transfers.
The 8.5% card processing fee, stakeholders claim, far exceeds market norms where rates for similar government transactions average between 1.5 and 3%.
The operators further presented their petitions to the government amid their continued protests against newly introduced ‘Gateway Fees’.
The agents handed their petitions to Wildlife Principal Secretary Silvia Museiya, PS Museiya lauded the agents for choosing a constitutionally accepted way to present their petitions when they felt that the government is not listening, adding that the issues they raised are genuine and must be addressed.
“I agree that there are issue that are genuine and they should be addressed. I see three major issues, park entry fees. When we were doing this there was public participation, two it is also clear to me that it was not adequate i also see there is new fee there,” Museiya stated.
Adding to frustrations they highlighted that KWS has set the exchange rate at KSh135 per US dollar above the Central Bank of Kenya’s official rate of around KSh129.50. This discrepancy inflates park entry fees for local and international visitors.
“The abrupt removal of bank transfers has made it extremely difficult to process large transactions for inbound group tours and corporate clients with the rollout creating an uneven playing field just when the industry is recovering from global economic shocks.”
Munyaka Njiru a Tour Operator said they demand immediate gateway fee be abolished and KWS come up with their own ways of sorting out their administrative costs.
Jackline Nganga, Member of Tranquil Expeditions highlighted that Tour operators don’t know where gateway way fee goes despite making the payments they do not appear on the receipt.
“The additional 8.5% on park fees, we were not consulted and we want it abolished because their is a court order against it yet the government has implemented defing court orders”, She added.
They warned that if no action is taken they will move to parliament next week.
