The Uganda tourism Stakeholders are all against the proposed sale of Kisite Mpunguti Marine Park at 1.4 billion shillings and yet this is s a very famous and major tourist destination in South Coast of Kenya. This place was gazetted as a national park in 1973 under legal notice No. 216 after it had been listed among that land that was up for grabs by Swiss investor Alessandro Torriani who has claimed legal ownership.
Mohamed Hersi who is the chair person of the Mombasa and Coast Tourist Association said while addressing the Star on Friday that the stakeholders will not allow the park to be sold as it is very important to the tourism industry. He said that the land title that the Torriani have might have been acquired during the time of the corrupt President Moi Kibaki’s regime.
This park is the only place in Kenya where tourists can dance and swim with dolphins therefore it can not left in the hands of private investors to deal with all the tourists that flock to the area. The park is about 21.5-acre and attracts thousands of tourists from overseas as well as the local tourists in a year who come to enjoy the world class fishing and diving.
Kenya Wildlife Service has disowned titles that are in possession of Torriani and Arthur Tuda, the KWS assistant Director in charge of Coast region said that the area has never been de-gazetted at one time. He also said that he had dropped the plan to have the park sold to give room for further consultations with KWS officials.
Torriani said over the phone that this is not his fault but it’s the problem of those people the government leased the land to from whom he bought it. With this on going saga, he has decided to drop the advert to carry out more consultation.
