PRESSURE MOUNTS ON TANZANIA TO OPEN BOLOGONJA BORDER

By Adam Ihucha-Arusha

Tourism stakeholders want the border between the Maasai Mara game reserve in Kenya and Serengeti National Park in Tanzania opened in line with the principles of the East African Community.
The East African Tourism Platform (EATP) says opening the Bologonja border, which was closed by Tanzania following the collapse of the East African Community in 1977, would save tourists the five-hour drive through the nearest crossing point and encourage regional tourism.
The border at the Sand River is on the route used by wildebeest during the spectacular annual migration that attracts thousands of tourists to both countries. Before its closure, it was a convenient route for tourists visiting the Serengeti-Masai Mara ecosystems.
Following the collapse of the first East African Community in 1977, Tanzania closed all border posts with Kenya for nearly seven years. In the mid-1980s, it reopened the main highway border points, but kept the Bologonja one closed.
According to EATP co-ordinator Waturi Matu, visitors to the Maasai Mara wishing to cross into Serengeti sometimes have to drive back to Nairobi for an overnight stopover before proceeding to Arusha via Namanga, and on to the Serengeti.
Faraj Abdalla, the managing director of Nairobi-based Nahdy Travel & Tours Ltd, said the extra distance owing to the closed border increasesd the cost of the Serengeti-Maasai Mara package.
Tanzania National Parks spokesperson Pascal Shelutete told The EastAfrican Tanzania would not open the border because the differences between the two countries’ tourism policies.
“Kenya encourages mass tourism while Tanzania prefers quality tourism ... low volumes of tourists but with higher revenue. So we feel that once we open Bolongonja border the tourist traffic from Kenya will be extremely high at the expense of the fragile Serengeti ecology,” he said.
On his part, Adam Akiyoo, an official at the Natural Resources and Tourism Ministry, said his ministry would not bow to any pressure on the matter of the Bologonja border, notwithstanding the EAC Common Market Protocol that provides for free movements of goods, persons, labour, services and capital within the region: “The EAC arrangement is not everything. Tanzania like other partner states is still a sovereign country. We are only obliged to implement those issues we agree with and not everything.
Our borders must be respected,” he said. In addition to the closed border, the stakeholders also complained about a requirement for tourists to change vehicles at the borders of Namanga, Sirari and Taveta, which they said was not only a humiliation for visitors but a veiled bid by Tanzania to keep competition away.
The EATP vicechairperson, Manzi Kayihura, called on the two countries to resolve the issues bilaterally.