Nairobi News

Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala has launched an annual elephant naming festival at the Amboseli National Park.

This means you can now name an elephant at the Amboseli National Park for Sh 500,000.

Dubbed Tembo Naming Festival, the event will be held on August 12th to coincide with World Elephant Day.

The festival entails a bidding process by interested tourists at a minimum bidding fee of Sh 500,000. The highest bidder will have the opportunity to name one out of 28 elephants, including two twins.

The second name will be a Maasai name based on the animal’s profile, history, role in the family, and physical attributes like the state of its tusks.

The event aims to raise awareness of elephants’ plight and rally support towards their conservation. The initiative will also play a pivotal role in ensuring that the conservation of elephants is not affected by shocks and crises like the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The initiative will also play a pivotal role in ensuring that the conservation of elephants is not affected by shocks and crises like the Covid-19 pandemic,” Balala said while at the Amboseli National Park.

The Ministry of Tourism aims to raise Sh 100 million in the next five years for wildlife conservation.

Further, the CS said conservation was a key priority area under the National Wildlife Strategy 2030.

The strategy gives a roadmap for transforming wildlife conservation in Kenya.

It also lays out opportunities and innovative approaches to address emerging challenges facing wildlife in Kenya while ensuring benefits accrue to the millions of Kenyans who support wildlife living on their land.

Currently, Kenya boasts of over 34,000 Elephants, with the number increasing gradually at an annual rate of 2.8 percent over the last three decades.