Dar won’t open Serengeti-Mara border crossing

Tanzania has once again blocked the opening of the Bologonja entry point into the Maasai Mara-Serengeti national parks.

It says it can’t risk environmental damage to the world famous Serengeti National Park as a result of massive tourist flows from Kenya.

Senior officials from the Tanzania Tourist Board, the country’s official tourism marketing and promotion institution, said there was no way the crossing point into the Serengeti park would be opened.

Peter Mwenguo, managing director of TTB, told The EastAfrican in Dar es Salaam that Sand River-Bologonja crossing points will remain closed.

He said he had communicated this information to all diplomatic missions within the country and overseas, as well as tourist representatives, tour operators and travel agents.

The entry point was closed by the government of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere in 1977 after the collapse of the East African Community.

In its statement, TTB said the Bologonja border entry point will remain closed despite claims by the Kenya Association of Tour Operators (Kato) that it would open soon after successful discussions between the two governments.

Ezekiel Maige, Deputy Minister for Tourism and Natural Resources, also said Tanzania has no intention of reopening the border point at this time, as jointly agreed earlier with Kenyan leaders.

Mr Maige said there is a committee dealing with the issue, but that the entry point will remain closed for environmental reasons.

Elsewhere, Kenya’s Wildlife and Tourism Minister Najib Balala argued that continued closure of the Bologonja entry point by Tanzania was not in the spirit of the East African Community.

“A lot of progress has been made in tourism within the Community, but the hesitation by Tanzania — especially on its border posts — is worrying,” he told journalists in Nairobi.

But Mr Maige argued: “The fragile ecosystem of the area, which is a World Heritage Site, cannot be sacrificed for the mere purpose of shortening the route between Maasai Mara and Serengeti, which is also a crossing point for wildlife during the annual migration.”

Officials of the TTB said that, according to the Tourism Co-operation Agreement signed by Tanzania and Kenya following the Arusha Summit Communique of November 16, 1983, Article X(b), tourists shall be transported in and out of each country through designated border posts or regional towns.

The chief executive officer of Kato, Fred Kaigua, had earlier stated in an e-mail that a new consensus had been reached between Tanzania and Kenya on opening the crossing point to allow tourist vehicles from Kenya to enter Tanzania from the Sand River crossing point.

The e-mail, circulated to Kato members in September, said the decision to open the Bologonja-Sand River entry point would dramatically reduce the travel time between the Maasai Mara Reserve in Kenya and the Serengeti in Tanzania.