KIA faces tough future as Kenya builds airport at Kilis doorstep
By arusha Times Correspondent and Edward Selasini
Killimanjaro International Airport (KIA)is likely to become void when Kenyas planned international airport at Taveta, only eight kilometers from the Tanzanian border, becomes a reality.
Kenya's High Commissioner to Tanzania, Mutinda Mutiso announced last week that his country had finalised plans to build a major airport near the Holili border post in order to boost economic activities, including tourism in the area.
The facility, hardly 80 kilometres from KIA, is expected to cost about Tsh 170 billion ( Ksh 10 billion) and construction works are expected to start next year.
Hon. Mutiso was speaking to the mainly Kenyan business community at Leisure Garden in Sakina Arusha. He called on Kenyan and Tanzanian businessmen not to be scared of the challenges resulting from the competitions but instead take the developments positively to boost East African inter-state trade.
The previously unannounced plan to have a new airport in the area which already has two international airports in the vicinity; the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) in Tanzania and Moi International Airport in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, has caught stakeholders in both the aviation and tourism industry in Tanzania by surprise.
Tourism and hotel industry stakeholders in Arusha hinted that the planned airport by the Kenyan authorities could be a long term strategy by the neighbouring country to "kill" KIA, Tanzania's second largest airport located midway between Arusha and Moshi.
The Director of Finance and Administration of the Kilimanjaro Development Company (KADCO) which is responsible for running and development of KIA, Mr. Bakari Mulusuri told the Arusha Times he was not aware of Kenyas plans to build an international airport at Taveta.
But, Andrew Malalika, managing director of the Arusha-based Jackpot Tours Limited was aware of the information and he did not mince words that the Taveta airport was a new move by Kenya to outsmart Tanzania whose tourism industry has recorded fast growth in recent years.
He said the new airport, which Mr.Mutiso said would be built just a few kilometres from Holili border post, would be used by Kenyan tour operators to bring mountain climbers to Mt.Kilimanjaro as well as tourists for other attractions in Kilimanjaro and Arusha regions.
He cautioned the Tanzanian authorities about the scheme and called on KIA to
improve its services in order to survive in the business environment which would become much more competitive with the coming into force of the East African Community (EAC) Common Market later this year.
When asked about the project, EAC secretary general Juma Mwapachu said he was not aware of it and that the matter had not featured in the EA infrastructure development projects which are coordinated at the Arusha secretariat.
Ambassador Mutiso said the new airport was likely to be located only seven kilometres inside Kenya and a short distance from Holili (Tanzania),an important border town along the along the Moshi-Voi-Mombasa highway.
Also to be constructed in the area is an inland port to handle the cargo traffic from the Mombasa port to the hinterland and landlocked countries in the region.
Besides Kenya, the port handles cargo from or destined to northern Tanzania regions, especially Arusha, Kilimanjaro and Manyara regions.
Mutiso said the new airport is aimed at tapping the tourism potential of south east Kenya and north east Tanzania which are endowed with various attractive sites for the visitors.
These include Tsavo West and Amboseli game reserves in Kenya and Mt.Kilimanjaro and newly elevated Mkomazi national park in Tanzania.
"We want to see the Taveta/Holili border region fully integrated for investments and business "he said, adding that his country would upgrade the Mombasa-Taveta railway line to attract more traffic,especially to northern Tanzania.
Other transport infrastructures in the area lined up for upgrading include the Mombasa--Lunga Lunga road to the Tanzanian border and Horohoro-Tanga section in Tanzania.
The diplomat defended the new international airport for his country, saying it would reduce the costs and inconveniences by tourists from abroad who had to change planes several times to reach the famous game sanctuaries in the area.
However, when pressed further on the critical need for the airport in the area that has two international airports at Mombasa and KIA, the Kenyan envoy admitted that the new project could be for Kenya's strategic motives given the fluid situation around Mombasa because of its proximity to war ravaged Somalia and rising piracy in the west Indian Ocean.
Should the project go ahead, it is likely to impact negatively on KIA which had not been used to the optimum due to high landing and fuel charges which Have resulted in less traffic than anticipated when it was constructed 40 years ago. KIA was intended to attract more visitors to Tanzania from abroad especially the tourists heading to the famous national parks in the northern circuit, to land there instead of Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
http://www.arushatimes.co.tz/front_page_1.htm
Protests over US firms plan for Serengeti
Mike Mande
The East African
Lobbyists are up in arms over a proposal by an American company to the Tanzanian government to build an international airport in the game reserve.
Kenya and Tanzania are opposing a controversial project that aims to turn the Serengeti and Maasai Mara game reserves into ordinary national parks.
A US investor Grumet Reserves Ltd plans to build an international airport at Mugumu in Serengeti district of Mara region and a road highway linking Mara and Arusha regions through the Serengeti National Park.
The simmering row began in March 2006, when the then Tanzanian Minister for Infrastructure Development, Basil Mramba and Robbert Dugger, chairman of Grumet Reserves Ltd, signed a memorandum of understanding over the use of millions of dollars from the Millennium Challenge Corporation for the two Serengeti projects. Mr Mramba is currently the Minister for Industry, Trade and Marketing
However, the Tanzania National Parks Authority (Tanapa), local and international non-governmental organisations and Kenya oppose the project because of its ecological and physiological impact on the parks and animals.
Gerald Bigurube, director general of Tanapa, told The EastAfrican last week that development of human activities in Serengeti would restrict the movement of animals to Maasai Mara in Kenya and reduce gene flow, thereby impacting negatively on their population and species.
To maintain biodiversity and ecosystem functions in both the short and long-term it is necessary to maintain habitat connectivity so that individual animals can move freely across the landscape, he said, adding that the international airport, the highway and other linear developments within the park would reduce and eliminate animal movements and habitat connectivity.
Mr Bigurube said the Serengeti ecosystem is facing the problems that much of the world has already experienced habitat reduction and fragmentation at a variety of spatial scales that has been widely acknowledged as a primary cause of the decline of many species worldwide such as that in the Mikumi National Park in Morogoro region.
He said experts from Grumet Reserves had already made their feasibility studies for the two projects without involving Tanapa. The project is supposed to lift Tanzania onto a new and much higher path of growth and job creation.
According to the memorandum of understanding, Grumet Reserves will build a highway from Musoma to Mto wa Mbu via Natta, Mugumu, Tabora B, Kleins Camp and Loliondo through Serengeti National Park at a cost of $50 million.
The international airport at Mugumu would cost an estimated $13.4 million while relocation of the Tanapa headquarters from Fort Ikoma to Tabora B and its construction will cost of $5.3 million. The relocation of Robanda Village and its construction is expected to cost $8.7 million.
The 3.8 km runway at Mugumu will facilitate the landing and takeoff of jet aircraft from the US or elsewhere direct to the northern part of Serengeti National Park.
But zoologists say noise from aircraft will expose animals to excessive stimulation of their nervous systems, leading to chronic stress, which is harmful to the healthy growth and reproductive fitness of animals.
But Grumet Reserves says it is not involved in the construction of any road or airport in Serengeti.
Robert Dugger, chairman of Grumet Reserves told The EastAfrican from Washington that his company is committed to restoring and preserving the environment of the wildebeest migration route through the Grumet, Ikoma and Ikongoro game areas.
Mr Dugger said, As part of our community development commitment, we studied a variety of regional economic development possibilities and decided to focus on water access and education.
We are not involved in any northern road or airport projects these are government responsibilities. It is our understanding that the government has been studying such projects for several decades, he said.
According to Mr Dugger, Grumeti Reserves Ltd is not a subsidiary or affiliate of Tudor Investment Corporation but a fully independent philanthropic wildlife conservation and community development effort.
Joe ole Kuwai, projects director of Frankfurt Zoological Societys Tanzania Regional Office had told The EastAfrican from Serengeti last week that they had had discussions with the proprietor of Grumet Reserves Paul Tudor Jones over the issue and that he will be coming over to Tanzania in July for further discussion.
Mr Kuwai said that a zoological team of experts from the Frankfurt Zoological Society and Kenyan zoologists will this week meet the Tanzania Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources and Environment over the proposed projects.
The zoologists are opposing the project and they will be meeting Tanzanian parliamentarians to press for the halting of the projects, he said, adding that they have asked the owner of Grumet Reserves Ltd to build a small airport at his hotel area
http://www.bushdrums.com/news/index.php?shownews=1013
Bologonja border-crossing point is closed": Tanzania Tourist Board
Published on: Fri, 10/23/2009 - 5:08pm
Apolinari Tairo
IN an apparent move to clarify the claim raised by the Kenya Association of Tour Operators over the blocked Bologonja border point, the Tanzania Tourist Board has said the controversial border crossing remains closed.
The move by TTB to issue a statement over the weekend came shortly after Kenyan Association of Tour Operators issued a circular, to inform its members that the Bologonja gate in Serengeti National Park was open for tourists entering the famous park from Kenya.
TTBs media advisory said that this was totally distorted information by KATO, that the Bologonja entry point was open for Kenyan tourists to pass through when coming to visit Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area and other parks on the northern Tanzania tourist circuit.
Through a circular issued and signed by KATO chief executive officer (CEO) Mr. Fred Kaigua, which was then sent as an e-mail messageto all KATO members, the KATO chief executive officer claimed that an agreement has been reached to open up Bologonja gate to allow tourists from Kenya to enter Serengeti through the Kenyan crossing of Sand River.
He said in his circular to KATO members that the decision to open the Bologonja/Sand River crossing will dramatically reduce the travel time between Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya and the Serengeti in Tanzania, and signify a new official border crossing between Kenya and Tanzania.
The circular said that the new development in the opening of the Kenyan / Tanzania border was announced by Kenyan Minister for Wildlife and Tourism Mr. Najib Balala, after he obtained confirmation about the opening of the controversial tourist crossing border from immigration chiefs from both Kenya and Tanzania.
Our initial enquires to confirm the actual situation on the ground reveals that there is a full deployment of immigration staff on the Kenyan side at Sand River, whereas they are yet to be deployed on the Tanzanian side, reads part of the KATO message (circular) to its members.
Responding to the Kenyan tourist operators umbrella associations circular, TTB said in its statement that the e-mailed circular was misleading since there is no agreement of any kind reached to open the Bologonja / Sand River border point, a situation that would distort, confuse and create inconvenience to tourists visiting Serengeti in Tanzania and Maasai Mara in Kenya.
The agreed and designated border point which is currently being used to cross by road from Maasai Mara to Serengeti is Isebania/Sirari outside the Serengeti National Park, which is now being commonly used by all tour operators from Tanzania and Kenya.
Tanzania Tourist Board would like to inform all diplomatic missions, within and overseas, tourist representatives, tour Operators, travel agents, operators of tourist accommodation establishments, transporters, tourists and the public, that the Sand River and Bologonja border crossing point connecting Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya and Serengeti National Park in Tanzania is not open, read the media advisory.
We would like to see our esteemed clients noting that Tanzania has no intention of re-opening the Sand River/Bologonja border point. The entry point will remain closed for environmental reasons. The fragile ecosystem of the area which is a World Heritage Site cannot be sacrificed for the purpose of shortening the route between Maasai Mara and Serengeti National Parks, TTB said.
The Board (TTB), which is Tanzanias official tourist promotion and marketing institution, further said tourists entering Tanzania should be transported through designated border posts or regional towns.
TTB wishes to inform all tourist agents and the public that, according to the Tourism Co-operation Agreement between the United Republic of Tanzania and the Republic of Kenya following the Arusha Summit Communique of November 16th, 1983, Article X(b), tourists shall be transported in and out of each country through designated border posts or regional towns, the advisory said.
Current border crossing points which have been authorised by the two neighbouring countries are Namanga (Kenya and Tanzania), Sirari and Isebania, Holili and Taveta, and Horohoro and Lungalunga, from the Tanzanian and Kenyan sides respectively.
http://theexpress.server295.com/node/250
The gist of the three articles aboveGuys, for many years i have been keenly observing the politics of Kenya on Tanzanian tourism resources and i am wondering what is going on with our neighbours' jitter that always tunes them to hide behind conservation cries while really motives being to frustrate our Tourism potential taking off!
Recently these "mean neighbours" of ours have successfully managed to convice a CITES panel to refuse a one sell off of Tanzanian elephant trophies claiming (with cooked evidences) uncontrolled poarching activities that prevail all over Tanzania esp. Southern game reserves especially Selous and claiming to fear a trigger of poarching activities in their backyard but refused to highlight simple facts like the overgrowing population of our elephants from 55,000 to 110,000 (highest population in the whole Africa).
Whereas just recently they have anounced a plan to build a new airport (within a proximity to two international airports i.e. Mombasa and Kilimanjaro), opening up Voi-Mombasa railway and an inland port at the border area between between Holili and Taveta. I personally have no problem with these investments since i believe will hasten the development of the region as a hub especially Kilimanjaro that will be far easily and costless accessed and triggering more businesses to be open as a results these three new investments.
My main problem here is the manner under which our neighbours have chose to pursue, they have been constantly unproportionally blowing up things concerning Tanzania development initiatives even if it takes blood lies to justify their bitter disaporoval of things; for instance when a private investor decided to build an airport at a town of Mugumu within the Serengeti, The nation Media came with very negative articles disapproving the project under the disguise of saving the Serengeti ecosystem! Suprizingly the same people came being for the Bolongoja/Sand River crossing border gate that lays on the same ecosystem to be opened forgetting they were strongly oppossing any activities on the same ecosystem two years before!? These are kind of things i fail to understand he motives behind these neighbours of ours! Are they solely loosers? should we listen anything from them?
