I think that travel insurance does not cover any civil war or such events. Unless they have changed. Most policies have such small writings in them.

If they camps / lodges / hotels do not give back deposutes they wioll not see those clisnets again. When 9/11 took us all with a blow; my computer was bombarded with cancellations and I was going crazy in a panic. I can proudly say that I did not charge 1 Euro cancelation fee and gave every last penny of deposite back; the long term result; - nearly every client who cancelled came on holiday when the water settled and where very thankful.

It will take time for everything to go back to normal - I just hope for those hoteliers and lodge owners that it will change back very quickly as it will have a dramatic effect for all - For the owners, workers and travellers.

Nico:

When you consider their busy season is January - March, I would doubt that there will be much of a recovery until their next busy season in July, August and September. There will be so many starving people for the next six months.

I sincerely hope that if Europe and the US deny payments to the Kenyan government (and they should), that they will at least be quickly forthcoming with food and money to the Red Cross or such organizations that directly help the people as opposed to the government who squanders it.

I agree - however it is not only the local government that pockets money provided by the world bank and large 1st world countries.
The large NGO although they mean very good - are at times not very effecient either due to internal political policies....!
The ground staff of the large NGO are on the ball and know how to react but the decision makers that I call the white collars are the ones that take too much time to react and get things moving.

jan,

And though I know Carsten disagrees with me, tribalism has to be done away with some how. It is so very difficult to understand how a Kikuyu can live next to a Kalenjin or Luo for 10 years and get along, and then because someone from his tribe calls him, chops off the neighbor's head with a panga and in some cases gives up a wife and kids who love him to go and fight for a tribe-mate who doesn't care one bit about him.
we don't have to go to africa to see that happen. we experienced the same in ex-yogoslavia at the beginning of the 90ies where even mnix-mariages lead to killing lelatives......

[color=darkred]Pippa: from what I've been reading, if people do go ahead with their travel plans, their travel insurance will no longer cover them. Is that so for your clients also?
[/color]here is the same! and as long as the kenyan serviceproviders or tourism office don't act....there won't be coming any booking!

Original von Nico
I agree - however it is not only the local government that pockets money provided by the world bank and large 1st world countries.
The large NGO although they mean very good - are at times not very effecient either due to internal political policies....!
The ground staff of the large NGO are on the ball and know how to react but the decision makers that I call the white collars are the ones that take too much time to react and get things moving.

nico,

these are all politicians and obviously it's a kind of "genetically mutation" when they become powerful. even NGO bosses become very volatile when huge amounts of money is involved. we saw this also here in germany with unicef recently!
proof for that: when idi amin, one of the worst sloughters in africa, sought refugee france welcomed him with open arms! and why? because these politicians don't know whether they need help themselves one day....

Jan, this has nothing to do with tribalism. It is purely about power between 2 people. The rest follows blindly or - for those living in slums in Mombasa and Nairobi - they take advantage of the general chaos to grab a piece from the cake that is normally on a table too high for them to reach.