Kenya accuses Tanzania of sabotaging wildebeest migration in fire row

david nganga

July 20, 2018 5:45 PM

The migration was expected to have started two weeks ago.

Kenyan tour operators have accused Tanzanian rangers of lighting fire on the Serengeti National Park and Masai Mara Game Reserve border to sabotage the migration of wildebeests to the Mara.

Tanzanians living around the Serengeti National Park are reported to have set the area on fire to delay the animals' migration, which is one of the most phenomenal natural spectacles in the world.

A large tract of the Serengeti reserve in northern Tanzania along the migratory routes is still on fire and has pushed back wildlife.

Tanzanian officials said the burning of bush is aimed at aiding regeneration of grass in the area, a claim tour guides in the Mara refuted.

The migration that was to begin two weeks ago has attracted a high number of tourists with hotels and lodges in the Mara reporting full to near-full capacity bookings.

Taunted as the eighth wonder of the world, over a million wildebeests and about 200,000 zebras and gazelles cross the border of Kenya and Tanzania for a four month stay (July-October) in the savannah of this national reserve.

david nganga