Tourism Ministry raises Ksh.10 million for elephant naming festival

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The Citizen

Date Published

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The Ministry of Tourism has mobilized Ksh.10 million for the upcoming elephant naming festival dubbed the Magical Kenya Tembo naming festival.

The contributions include Ksh.3 million from the East African Breweries Limited (EABL), the Elephant Cooperation, Twiga Tours and the Animal Adoption Advocacy LLC.

The funds will be channeled towards the conservation of elephants while the elephant undertaking taking will be staged at the Amboseli National Park next month.

“Conservation of wildlife resources requires us to be innovative because it is not cheap, and this is the reason we came up with this initiative to raise funds and also ensure that the public plays a role in conservation. We don’t have to build the fences and water pans for wildlife, you as the public or organizations can be our partner and do it and be part of this great festival,” said Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala on Tuesday.

“The national wildlife census was a historic opportunity to develop an inventory of our wildlife resources, in recognition of their place as strategic national assets” said Balala.

The naming ceremony will allow individuals and organizations to give names to selected elephants after donating funds towards the program which is aimed at boosting conservation efforts of the endangered species.

The Ministry of Tourism is expected to raise up to Ksh.100 million for the upcoming naming and elephant conservation exercise.

At the same time, CS Balala has disclosed that Dutch based carrier KLM will launch two weekly flights between Amsterdam and Mombasa with the maiden flight set for November 2.

The launch of the flights is expected to increase connectivity between Europe and the coastal city.