Tourists conned Sh 26,000 by cartel in fake Tsavo East tour

Angry tourists expose cartel offering fake vacations in Kenya

Authors:

Miriam Mwende

January 9, 2019 4:16 PM

KWS rangers tried to pay off the tourists for their silence

Tourists during a past tour of Tsavo East

Tourists visiting Kenya have exposed a cartel that has been duping foreigners seeking to visit Tsavo East.

Joshua Gibbons, a tourist from the United Kingdom, narrated his ordeal at the hands of the rogue tour guides who took him and his companion to a private ranch and lied to them that they were in the Tsavo.

"We believed we paid Sh 26,000 for a trip to Tsavo East and after a shorter journey than expected of three hours from Mombasa we were apparently there.

Tourists enjoy watching elephants at a watering hole in Tsavo East (Twitter) Pulse Live Kenya

"I checked on the map on my phone and it didn't seem like we were really in the national park," Gibbons told Nation.

Many have fallen prey to the scam

He added that they found a number of tourists at the facility who had bought into the scam.

"Everyone there had made them believe that they were in Tsavo East, we were really shocked.

"My partner then phoned her uncle to help them check out and establish where they were and it emerged that we were in a private ranch," he narrated.

Entrance to Tsavo East national park (Twitter) Pulse Live Kenya

A Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) captain seemed to be working with the guides and ranch owners as he attempted to silence the tourists with a refund the money they had given.

"Out of the Sh 26,000 we had paid, they only gave us Sh 7,000. They then said that the guide will take Sh 5,000 and another Sh 5,500 was for the fuel we used," Gibbons explained.

The rogue tourists claimed to be part of a company going by the name Spot Kenya Safaris, however, the manager was shocked to find out about the matter as the tour guide involved had not reported for work that day.

Authors:

Miriam Mwende