Opportunities for enhancing Tourism and Trade in Turkana County

On the 4th, September 2017 the tiny mountainous Kingdom of Swaziland performed the 33^rd Annual Umhlanga, or Reed Dance ceremony, a Swazi and Zulu event where Swaziland’s King Mswati III picked his 14th wife in the person of 19-year-old Siphele Mashwama.

In Swaziland, over 40,000 thousands of unmarried, childless Swazi girls or maidens and women travel from the various chiefdoms to the Ludzidzini Royal Village to participate in the eight-day event. This is an annual traditional chastity rite participated by thousands of maidens who camp at the Ludzidzini royal residence, where the Queen Mother lives.

Tourists from all over the world visit Swaziland to witness this African spectacular ceremony, which has become one of the most sought after events. The government through its Ministry of Tourism and Culture has made this event a flagship project in its annual calendar due to the significant foreign exchange earnings and despite the negative publicity from the foreign media about this old age ceremony, Swaziland economy has continued to witness a significant growth in the tourism sector.

Turkana County in Kenya also celebrates an annual event dubbed ‘Tobong Lore’ in Turkana language meaning “come back home”.This Cultural event has the potential of attracting both local and international tourists semblant to the attraction that the Reed Dance festival does.

Tobong Lore is a flagship project as per the Turkana County Integrated Development Plan 2013-2015 (TCIDP). This annual event is meant to  celebrate the uniqueness of Turkana culture and market Turkana globally as the Cradle of Mankind.  The Cradle of humanity approach presents a unique opportunity for Kenya and the rest of the world considering that the fossils of the Turkana boy were discovered in Turkana.

One would be tempted to ask how Turkana County would leverage on the popularity of Tobong Lore. As a build up to the main event, each of the six sub-counties in Turkana would hold a number of cultural activities that will culminate into the bigger celebration at the county capital where each sub-county would present some aspect of the Turkana Cultural heritage

Creation and showcasing of high value niche products in the form of mini cultural events like Turkana traditional weddings (akuuta) and mass initiation (asapan) ceremonies that can be used to add pomp and colour in  the height of the annual event. These ceremonies can be documented as high points in marketing the county as a tourism attraction as well as a method of preserving our culture for generations to come. Anybody would imagine the happiness of the number of volunteer couples who will step forward to take part in this event to realise their lifetime dream to do a traditional wedding and the excitement in the crowds when seeing these milestones live on stage on the very day!

The hospitality sector would be happier to have this event in each sub-county as well. This would solve  a number of challenges facing the sector that include low bed capacity, insecurity and slow investor response to the opportunities abound in this county. The Ministry of Tourism can embark on certification of home stays programme to supplement the bed capacity challenges in far flung areas to the delight of the locals.This growth would lead to the revamp of and creation of the high-end international hotels chains along the shores of the Lake Turkana to mitigate  influx of large tourist population.

The grand idea of Tobong Lore,come back home narrative can be expanded to mean a welcome note to everyone from across the globe to come back home to Turkana county - the origin of mankind. To start us off, we could appoint international celebrities, our own Kenyan Athletes, models and movie stars as Tobong Lore brand ambassadors who will assist drive this agenda to international community.

Establishment of Tobong Lore Village Parks (kraals) with state of the art infrastructure aligned with the cultural set up featuring hotels, entertainment, cultural centres, will attract more people to visit Turkana and enjoy the ‘Disneyland’ experience of Turkana Culture.

The much-awaited setting up of the state of the art Science Park by Dr. Richard Leakey of the Turkana Basin Institute will be the icing on the cake for all tourist wanting to visit the Cradle of Mankind. This facility that will include Hospitals, Business Park, airports and the Cradle Museum to me will be the climax of the come back home experience. The science Park will have significant economic impact to the County.

Turkana County is endowed with beautiful sceneries that can be harnessed to drive other tourist activities. Lotikipi Plains for instance is an ideal place for the desert eco-sports, leisure drives, desert camping and water based sports. This could be modeled around the idea behind the Paris Dakar rally which the county can develop its own version of The Cradle Desert Rally through Public Private Partnership programme.

We need to aggressively  push for establishment of a premier resort city at Eliye Springs along the shores of Lake Turkana. This will enable us achieve higher tourism revenue yield by increasing the number of county parks as well as improving the few available ones that currently underutilized.

The retail sector statistics in County CIDP indicates that there are only 41 registered wholesalers and 1532 retailers operating business in the county which is a very small number taking into consideration the huge investments opportunities available. This cultural event has a big impact towards enhancing Trade in the County considering the income that the event will generate to the business community. Additionally, the County Government must meticulously craft its business framework around a more inclusive wholesale and retail trade in conformity with the global standards through infusion of efficiency in the county marketing systems and lowering of transaction costs.

Strengthening informal trade through investment in local infrastructure, training and linking to wider local and global markets is a viable strategy that can spin local trade to a more up-looking poster. The County plan should  be geared towards attracting investors in the wholesale and retail chain market in Turkana while providing permanent and serviced facilities, training and access to credit and markets. Simplification of business registration and trade licensing through automation is a sound pillar in creating an enabling business environment.

Establishing County Producers Business Groups (CPBG) eg the cooperatives in fishing, agricultural sector players by assisting in branding and marketing their produce locally and regionally,Initiating sector-specific flagship projects in agro-processing, leather, construction services and materials and finally, development of County Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to support rising stars and building capabilities in the county are some of the seed ideas that can be grown to support the Tobong lore event. .

The County is 72% food poor, 92% poverty level and with unemployment standing at 70% is a clear indication that our bigger challenge is to enhance food security even before embarking on the grand ideas of flagship projects. Enhancing agriculture through irrigation given the huge amounts of water aquifer discovered in the county, should assist achieve our food security objectives and export the excess produce to other markets within the region.

The biggest and notable initiatives by the County Government is to enhance access to green energy through geothermal and solar power solutions. There are  technologies available that can be utilised in an effort to empower local entrepreneurship through  sustainable development of Base-of-the-Pyramid (BoP) communities by providing vital energy services, solar products and connectivity solutions through Public Private Partnerships Programme to establish Business Community Centres (BCC) to serve the off grid populations. The solar powered model centres will host shops where one can charge their phone, do photo copying, community halls with access to internet facilities and libraries  in the remotest parts of County.

In conclusion, Tobong Lore needs to be  supported for it to achieve the international status in terms of attracting tourism and in turn boost county economy through trade. We should own this event locally to attract regional or international guests. We must all come back home to the cradle of Mankind.

The Author

Ekaale Ekuam

Chair, Turkana Professionals Association (TPA)
ekaale.ekuam@gmail.com