Taru:

Glad to have you join us. Hope you'll become a regular here.

One can never be absolutely sure that KWS will act against a certain driver. However, KWS does react quickly to tourist's complaints as I can personally attest to.

Some of the rules are stated on KATO and I'll paste below:

Keep to designated roads or tracks when visiting national parks or reserves. Off-road driving can cause extensive damage to grass and woodland habitats

Minimise disturbance to animals by: keeping a good distance away from animals, not surrounding animals with several vehicles, keeping noise to a minimum and not attracting the animals attention

Stay inside your vehicle at all times, only leave it in designated areas. Remember: wild animals can be dangerous!

Keep the speed limit, usually 40 kph - and animals always have the right of way

Never feed any animal, this can upset their diet and lead to an unnatural dependence upon people

Take care not to disturb natures balance. Please do not purchase, collect or remove any animal products, rocks, plants, seeds or birds' nests from the wild

Take all your litter with you, it is dangerous to wild animals. Please be extremely careful with cigarettes and matches, which can cause major bush fires.

AT THE COAST:-

Protect the marine environment. Please do not touch or stand on the coral reefs.

Take all your litter with you, never dispose of it on the beach or in the sea.

Never buy or remove starfish, shells, or any products that derive from turtles, whales or other endangered species.

Avoid buying undersized crabs and lobsters and restaurants/hotels that serve them, as they are contributing to the rapid demise of these species.

Support designated market areas, where traders are making an effort to keep their business off the beaches

Please do not give money or gifts to children, which encourages them to stay away from school.

Please dress in a respectful way when visiting towns and villages - and never bathe topless on the beach

We kindly request all our guests to observe the provisions of the above Code of Conduct as part of your contribution towards preserving our rich heritage for future generations.

These "rules" are for tourists as well as driver/guides and everyone should be aware of them.

We have all seen examples of poor driving/guiding and harrassment of wildlife and the environment.
These are the things that should be reported. If no-one bothers to complain - nothing will be done.

Jan:

I've just had a look on the web to see what KATO is; seems it is the tourism operators' association. Having seen a little of how the tourism operators' vehicles behave in the parks, I can not say the operators take their own association's rules to heart. I suspect not may drivers or tourists would get to read those "rules"; it must take an enthusiast like you to dig them out. I couldn't find them on the KATO web site just now. Does KATO have jurisdiction over the parks: they can't be park _rules_ if KATO has no official jurisdiction.

What I did see on the KATO web page was a banner image depicting a group of happy tourists photographing a cheetah on the front of their _open_ safari vehicle; the cheetah apparently 1 metre from the tourists with nothing between them but air. Sorry, but I can't have much faith in an organisation that is trying to tell the millions of tourists that come to east africa that they can all have a cheetah sitting on their car and it is just fine to be that close as if the cats have nothing better to do than pose for photographs.

I tried googling "KWS park rules" and all it came up with on the KWS web site was: "By observing simple park rules and regulations, our visitors are assured of minimum accidents during their visit and stay in the Parks and Reserves." Obviously this was purely to reassure nervous tourists and was nothing to do with protecting animals from harassment. There was no link or heading anywhere to indicate where one would find such "simple park rules and regulations"

However, by random clicking, I did eventually stumble across the following at the bottom of the page on Tsavo East National Park:-

* It is forbidden to travel in an open vehicle while in the Park.
* Stay in your vehicle all the time. Get out only at designated areas.
* Off road driving is not allowed. View the wildlife from a distance with binoculars.
* Off road driving destroys vegetation, might kill wildlife and could interfere with the daily routine of animals. The tracks formed become an eyesore.
* Animals have a right of way. Do not harass them or make loud sounds; this might scare them and make them nervous. Patience pays!
* Remember not to litter.
* Remember: Do not take away anything, but photographs and leave nothing behind but footprints.

I wonder why it is only Tsavo East has anything that looks vaguely like rules! Could it be that someone in Tsavo East NP was a little more enlightened and concerned than the rest of KWS.

(And while they are forbidding you to travel in an open vehicle, KATO is featuring tourists in an open vehicle with a cheetah on the front!)

Sorry, but I can't help wondering if it is a waste of time until KWS shows some commitment to coming up with a really well defined set of rules and some way of getting tourist operators to follow them. Just try reading John Mbaria's article from the East African: http://www.bushdrums.com/news/index.php?shownews=1635.

In it he writes:
"It is evident that although we are losing control of such parks as the two Tsavos to miners
and herders and that the kind of tourism practised in our parks is unplanned and free for all,
the top management is merely interested in devising ever-smarter ways of collecting
revenue," said one senior warden who declined to be named.

And still no one has posted any evidence here that KWS actually takes some effective action if one lodges a complaint against a tour vehicle........

Taru:

The link for "Kenya Safari Rules" on KATO is http://www.katokenya.org/section.asp?ID=54. Most professional drivers when hired by a tour company are made aware of the rules. However, as you state, a lot of them don't pay any attention to them.

I have known of 2 cases in which a letter was written to KWS with a copy to one's own tour operator and know that KWS contacted the driver directly and banned them from the park. I can't say if this would work in all situations and in all countries. However, I do know that KWS takes complaints from tourists very seriously and does their best to rectify the situation.

I had a situation there two weeks ago when the park was loaded with cattle - with two cows even showing up at the private camp waterhole without a herder. When I got home I wrote KWS about the cattle situation and suggested KWS shoot the cattle, have them butchered and give the meat to the starving people living in the area (since they were illegally in the park). If you check the news articles posted today above, you will see that KWS spent the weekend ridding the park of cattle. Thus they do respond to complaints. They did not shoot them but instead chased them out of the park.

I am not here to say KWS doesn't have their problems. They do. Their funding has dropped dramatically this year with fewer tourists, fuel prices higher, etc. My main gripe with them is that they are reactionary - only responding when called upon. I would love to see them have their own "police patrol" who would do nothing but patrol the parks regularly to ensure drivers/tourists do not harrass the wildlife, stay onroad and not speed, not drive after dark, etc. My guess is that this will be a long time coming though.

Welcome Taru and thank you for joining and for your comments.

Lets not forget that most drivers do try and stick to the rules however quite a lot of the times they are asked by the tourists to take a little de tour which of course means extra tips... this is one main issue that the drivers told me directly. They can at times earn 4 to 5 times more of their monthly wages through tips if the clients are happy and manage to see everything.
I am not defending the drivers as I am the 1st person that does not want animals to be harrased however this is one main issue & cause.

The Complete Guide To Big-cat safaris (http://www.bushdrums.com/news/index.php?shownews=2146 Article at: http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/africa/the-complete-guide-to-bigcat-safaris-1638922.html)

Johnathon Scott says: "If you can't find the big cats yourself, then just look for a cluster of vehicles to point you in the right direction"

Translation: If you see a crowd of vehicles around some predators, then go and add to the crowd. (I have enough traffic jams here in London; why do I need to go to the Mara to be in a traffic crowd?)

Johnathon Scott says: "The experience we try to share with people on Big Cat Diary is the same one that visitors can enjoy for themselves by taking a safari to the Mara."

Comment: I haven't seen that many Big Cat Diary episodes; but ones I did see didn't show any crowds of vehicles. Either the cameras were carefully pointed the other way or they disappeared at the editing desk.

Johnathon Scott says: "Night game drives are great for tracking down predators such as lion, leopard and hyena as they are more active at night because it is cool and less stressful for them to move about."

Translation: Drive around in the dark blinding the animals with big lights; that will sure help the predators to hunt!

I think this problem is due to the safari companies paying their guides very low wages such that they can easily bend rules hoping to get that extra tip. Kenya professional safari guides Association has code of ethics that every member is encouraged to follow,their guides are well remunerated this enables the members to police themselves so that they don't bring bad reputations to the industry.