Plan to set up high-end hotels on Bomas land shelved after protests

Inside view of Bomas of Kenya.

What you need to know:

  • Construction of tourist hotels on land owned by Bomas of Kenya in Lang’ata has been suspended indefinitely.
  • The institute had raised concern over the impact of the project on Bomas of Kenya, a national resource, which is of historic and cultural significance.
  • “We realised that we had not carried out the feasibility study for the project as well as the environmental impact assessment and we want to allow that to take place before we proceed with the project, which is viable,” Mr Barsito said.

Construction of tourist hotels on land owned by Bomas of Kenya in Lang’ata has been suspended indefinitely.

The government cancelled the project that was meant to boost conference tourism after opposition from a human rights lobby— Katiba Institute — led by constitutional lawyer Yash Pal Ghai.

The lobby protested against Tourism ministry’s invitation of expression of interest for design and building of Bomas International Convention Centre, accusing it of failing to consult and involve Kenyans.

The institute had raised concern over the impact of the project on Bomas of Kenya, a national resource, which is of historic and cultural significance.

Prof Ghai also argued that the size of the land that was to be leased to the investors and the impact of the project on the existing users, especially Kenyans, had not been established.

“It seems that the conference centre itself will occupy 38 acres of which seven acres are indigenous forest and 31 acres will be used for hotels and shopping malls. Are these figures correct, and what is the plan for the remaining land?” asked Prof Ghai.

He also questioned if there was any survey on the biodiversity of the site and if it had been identified as having any national importance in terms of nature and history.

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

The ministry had in December requested for the expression of interest for the design and building of the international convention centre.

The invitation was to close on February 21.

The local and international investors were to be allocated special leases at the centre.

The government was to source for an operations and management contractor to operate and maintain the centre.

The investors were to put up one seven-star presidential hotel, a five-star hotel, a four-star hotel and two three-star hotels within the next three years.

The constructed hotels were to provide 2,000 new guest rooms in Nairobi and the centre was to meet the standards of the International Congress and Convention Association.

The ministry’s director of communication, Mr Kaplich Barsito, on Thursday said they cancelled the call for expression of interest to allow for a feasibility study to be carried out.

“We realised that we had not carried out the feasibility study for the project as well as the environmental impact assessment and we want to allow that to take place before we proceed with the project, which is viable,” Mr Barsito said.

He said that call for feasibility study would be done in the coming weeks and would help in sealing loopholes that had previously been overlooked.

The centre is about 10 kilometres from Nairobi’s Central Business District and borders Nairobi National Park.

The ministry said it would seek to facilitate the development of various international convention centres all over the country through the public-private partnerships.