Kenya’s Vision 2030: RESORT IN ISIOLO

This information is taken from an East African Standard article from 2007 and posted at Isiolo.com, a website started by individuals in Isiolo town that is updated infrequently.

As part of Kenya’s Vision 2030, the Government is planning to develop three resort cities by 2012 in a project aimed at making Kenya among the top tourist destinations in the world. Vision 2030 is Kenya’s national development plan promoting long-term growth that aims at transforming Kenya into a globally competitive and prosperous nation on par with such Asian countries as Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea.

"Tourism will be the leading sector in achieving the goals of the vision where it is aimed that the country will be among the 10 long haul tourist destination in the world, offering a high-end, diverse and distinctive visitor experience that few of her competitors can offer.’’ In Vision 2030, the Government plans to focus on three specific areas to achieve the goals for 2012: to quadruple tourism’s GDP contribution to over Ksh80 billion; to raise international visitors from 1.8 million in 2006 to three million in 2012 while raising average spend per visitor from the current Sh40,000 to at least Sh70,000 and; to increase hotel beds from 40,000 to about 65,000, combined with an emphasis on high quality service.

The establishment of the three resort cities—two at the Coast and the other in Isiolo--is classified as tourism’s flagship projects. One resort will be located at the North Coast while the second one will be at the South Coast. The third in Isiolo District will be located just on the outskirts of Isiolo town. The Government has already opened discussions on the project with the Isiolo County Council. About 1, 000 hectares needs to be allocated for the resort project. Developed on the model of South Africa’s Sun City, each of the resort cities in Kenya will be allocated enough hectares of land to enable the facilities have casinos, golf courses, restaurants and discotheques among other features. Isiolo, as part of Kenya’s safari destination, was picked because of the fame acquired by Shaba Game Reserve that had attracted filmmakers from across the globe.

‘’It is Joy and George Adamson who made Shaba famous. As a result, many major films have been shot here. We have a scenery that rivals Hollywood right here.’’ The Adamsons reared lions starting with lioness Elsa and later released them into the wild. Joy died at Shaba, while her husband was killed at neighbouring Kora National Reserve. Movies shot at Shaba over the last two decades include Born Free, Out Of Africa, To Walk with Lions and CBS TV blockbuster series, Survivor Africa.

My Question: A Pipedream or a Bold Vision?
With the myriad problems that plague Isiolo, turning it into a high end resort town sounds more like a dream than reality. One would imagine that re-occurring drought, clashes, high incidence of sickness and poverty all would have to be solved or at least reduced for Vision 2030 to be implemented. However, if you’ve ever visited the resorts located in the National Parks surrounding Isiolo (Samburu/Shabaa/Buffalo Springs/Il’Engwesi) then you will know that very lush environments can be created that cater successfully to high end tourists.

One of the problems with these resorts is that they are often very resource intensive, using large amounts of water (swimming pools/fountains, etc.) and electricity. It could be easy to foresee extremely high end areas, cordoned off and well protected by the police and military, set next to the mud huts of the Turkana and Somali. Most of the goods for the resorts would most likely be imported from abroad or shipped from Nairobi. The management would most likely be hired from the highly educated class in Nairobi or from overseas, leaving local workers to be employed in bottom rung jobs. This is, is one sense, a helpful thing as any job that removes people from being idle and providing something for their families is beneficial, however the impact on the overall economic health of the community would be limited.

My hope is that in some simplified form (NO Isiolo does not need a golf course!), Vision 2030 will be implemented and Isiolo will receive its much deserved attention as a beautiful and historically and culturally important place to visit. The question is how the project will be implemented…will it be a resource drain to the local community, or will it add to the local economy. Too many questions right now to know…though if I was to hazard a guess I’d say that with the Isiolo County Council identified as one of the most corrupt in the country a few years ago (though there is a grassroots movement to get more youth elected), turning Isiolo into a resort town would probably be a boon for those at the top, and a bane for everyone else.