A tour van explores the Maasai Mara Game Reserve
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Micato Safaris
The anticipated opening of the new US-owned Safari Lodge at the Maasai Mara has hit a sudden challenge after a Kenyan wildlife conservationist moved to court to block it.
The lodge was set to open on Friday, August 15, but the move was forced to suddenly stop after Meitamei Olol Dapash, the director of the Institute for Maasai Education, Research and Conservation (MERC), filed a petition arguing that the luxury lodge is a threat to the environment and the wildlife.
Guests who visit the lodge are expected to pay nightly rates starting at Ksh451,423 ($3,500) per person. The rate includes a suite with private decks overlooking a river crossed by migrating wildebeest. According to the Maasai Conservation Institute, the high-end lodge will damage one of the world’s most renowned ecological systems.
In a move to protect it, Dapash is now seeking to block the opening, alleging that the site will obstruct a crucial migration corridor between the Maasai Mara and Tanzania’s Serengeti. He filed a petition on August 12.
The great migration of wildebeest from Southern Serengeti to Maasai Mara.
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Maasai Mara
"That was the last crossing point. There are other places in the middle, but you cannot tell wildbeasts today you are going to cross the Sun River from the middle or south or something like that,’’ Olol Dapash argued.
‘’This is a tradition, something they have done over the years and that ought to have been respected,’’ the Conservationist continued.
Olol Dapash filed a suit against the internationally owned hotel, its owner, the project's local developer and the Kenyan authority, saying there was no evidence that an environmental impact assessment was done before the development was established.
The establishment has been receiving criticism since its inception; the criticism is not just in Kenya but also in Tanzania.
While in Kenya, local communities have complained about what they say are land grabs by wealthy investors. Reuters reports that in Tanzania, protests against the eviction of tens of thousands of Maasai are being held to make way for hunting lodges like these.
In a statement, the lodge's owner said it was committed to respecting the environment and insisted the developer had secured all necessary approvals.
Meanwhile, on August 1, Narok County, where the lodges sit, defended the exquisite lodge, dismissing the criticism as unfounded. The county was responding to a letter that Olol Dapash had written to Marriott International over the same. The letter was also copied to the Governor of Narok.
Tourists watching elephants at the Masai Mara in Kenya.
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&Beyond Bateleur Camp
