The Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife Najib Balala has maintained that the hell’s gate park Ol-Jorowa gorge will remain closed indefinitely.
This is following the death of seven people on Sunday that were swept away by flash floods that hit the park.
The CS has further directed that tour guides be trained on how to deal with such calamities.
On Sunday, seven people lost their lives in a flash flood that took place in hell’s gate national park , a weekend getaway from Nairobi that featured in “tomb raider: the cradle of life”.
The violent torrent swept away five people from the same family four Kenyans and an Indian resident.
Six others from the hiking party of 13 managed to escape.
The Kenya Wildlife Service said Sunday that the gorges were closed to the public as the rains were continuing.
A decision that the tourism and wildlife cabinet secretary has upheld.
In 2012, seven young Kenyans drowned at the same spot in the Ol Jorowa gorge, a highlight of the park about 100 kilometers northwest of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, and just south of Lake Naivasha.
While the KWS insists that its rangers at the park are trained to deal with flash floods, CS Balala has said the training will now be extended to tour guides as well..
Meanwhile, Kenya has maintained its position on the anti-poaching regulation at the convention on international trade in endangered species saying it is for a total ban on the sale of ivory.
Ties soured during this week’s meeting of the convention on international trade in endangered species (cites) in Geneva after numerous proposals from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional bloc were rejected.
Southern African nations are threatening to quit the global wildlife trade regulator after it refused to relax restrictions on trade in ivory and rhino horn and imposed a near total ban on zoos taking African elephants captured in the wild.
Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe — home to the world’s largest elephant population — asked for the right to sell ivory acquired through natural deaths, confiscations and culling.
The demand was rejected by a majority of 101 votes.
The cites treaty, created more than four decades ago, regulates trade in some 36,000 species of plants and animals and provides mechanisms to help crack down on illegal trade and sanction countries that break the rules.
