Kenya, Tanzania mapping experts meet over border demarcation
Friday April 15 2022
Mapping experts meet over Kenya-Tanzania border demarcation. PHOTO | COURTESY
A team of land officials and mapping experts from Tanzania and Kenya have inspected the common territorial border marking the Serengeti National Park and Maasai Mara Game Reserve.
The land officials from both the two countries have been meeting at the border since Tuesday this week over the border demarcation programme now under implementation among these two neighbouring states.
Hamdouny Mansoor, the director of Survey and Mapping in Tanzania’s Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, chaired the meeting jointly with Juster Nkoroi, the CEO of the Kenya International Boundaries Office (KIBO).
The team of mapping experts and land officials toured Kirongwe area in Tanzania and Muhuru Bay in Migori County, Kenya, then the Serengeti and Maasai Mara wildlife parks, a statement issued by Tanzania’s Ministry of Lands said on Thursday.
A total of 83 kilometres of the common border have been demarcated with beacons to indicate the actual boundary of each country, the statement added.
Preparations are underway to demarcate 110 kilometres from Lake Natron to Namanga in Longido district on the Tanzania side.
Last month, members of the Parliamentary Committee on Land, Natural Resources and Tourism from the Tanzanian Parliament visited the Serengeti and Maasai Mara ecosystem to inspect the demarcation progress following misunderstandings among tour operators from both Tanzania and Kenya over the actual border line.
Both Serengeti and Maasai Mara parks are encompassed within the same ecosystem within Tanzania and Kenya.
The beacons between Serengeti National Park and Maasai Mara Game Reserve have been painted in green and other natural colours to blend with the environment.
Northern parts of Tanzania are mostly affected with cross border movements by cattle herders looking for green pastures, a common practice which existed for many years.
Kenya shares a 758-kilometre border with Tanzania.
The border was demarcated by German and British colonial governments in 1893 under the Anglo-German Agreement and later the 1906 Protocol which set the current regional border between these two neighbour states.