Kenya Wildlife Service rejects wildebeest migration concerns linked to luxury lodge

The Kenya Wildlife Service on Thursday rejected claims that a new Ritz-Carlton luxury lodge was blocking a wildebeest migration corridor between Kenya's Maasai Mara reserve and Tanzania's Serengeti National Park.

A Kenyan activist filed a lawsuit in August seeking to block the opening of the hotel, which charges nightly rates starting from $3,500 per person. Though the hotel was allowed to open, the lawsuit is still ongoing.

The case has sparked a vigorous debate in Kenya, which relies heavily on tourism, over access to benefits from the industry.

In a statement shared on its official X account on Thursday, KWS said that monitoring data indicated that the Ritz-Carlton property did "not fall within, obstruct, or interfere with any wildebeest migration corridors."

Hotel says it obtained requisite approvals

"Migrating wildebeest are using the entire breadth of the Kenya-Tanzania border within the Reserve (approximately 68 km wide), without a specific preferred route or corridor," it said.

Marriott International, which owns Ritz-Carlton, has said the project's local developer Lazizi Mara Limited obtained all necessary approvals for the hotel. Lazizi said an environmental impact assessment had established that the site was not a wildlife crossing point.

The hotel is just the latest flashpoint in a broader rift over East Africa's wildlife tourism industry.

In Kenya, locals have complained about what they say are land grabs by wealthy investors. In Tanzania, protests against the eviction of tens of thousands of Maasai to make way for hunting lodges have led to deadly clashes with police.

Limited benefits for local communities

According to research by the University of Manchester published in August, some African nations' efforts to attract luxury tourism have yielded limited benefits for local communities and even deepened inequality.

All-inclusive resorts are often cut off from local life, hire few local workers, and keep tourists from spending in nearby communities by providing everything on-site, the research said.