This archive report was first published on 29 June 2020.
On June 29, 2020, Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala launched a naming fund for newborn rhino calves across the country, with a fee of Sh100,000 per name.
The fund aims to maintain the welfare of park rangers who care for rhinos, and to motivate parks to facilitate increased reproduction, as the more rhinos reproduce, the more money they get in their funds.
Speaking at Meru National Park, Balala named two calves, Walya and Layan, after his two granddaughters who celebrated their birthday that week, and paid Sh200,000 into the Meru National Park naming fund.
Meru National Park has had 9 newborn rhino calves this year, although two died. The CS congratulated the Kenya Wildlife Service for the increased reproduction rate of black and white rhinos, with 31 healthy calves recorded this year, 17 of which are black rhinos and 14 white.
CS Balala has expressed the ministry's desire to amalgamate the Eastern region parks into one ecosystem to save their biodiversity and build adequate infrastructure to attract private investment.
The proposed amalgamation involves Meru, Isiolo, Tharaka Nithi, and Kitui counties, with the aim of improving infrastructure and attracting private investors to revive the parks and promote tourism.
Despite a substantial shortfall in budgetary allocation for human-wildlife conflict compensations, the ministry has issued Sh550,000 to Meru and Tharaka Nithi counties as compensation for crop destruction.
