Kenya’s Prime Minister Raila Odinga has been asked to help in the improvement of water supply at and ensure batter roads to the Coast. The request was made by a group of Tourism stakeholders yesterday at the Coast after along time of having to bear with the poor infrastructure in the town which discourages tourists from visiting the place and thus affect the products of the industry at the end of the year because with these poor roads and shortage of water, Kenya is like to lose most of its tourists to its surrounding countries like Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda as well if the problem is not solved immediately.
Meanwhile Dan Mwazo the Tourism minister has appealed tour operators to be more creative so that they can attract as many tourists to Kenya as possible because the sector has the potential to attract more than 10 million tourists of course with proper management. Mohammed Hersi, the Mombasa and Coast Tourist Association chairman mentioned that Mombasa needs instant assistance especially since it is the entrance and the exit to East Africa therefore so many people use the port, it should have good if not the best infrastructure. He added that the Airport Road from the Moi International Airport to Changamwe also needs to be repaired immediately.
The tourism players also said that the heavy congestion at the Likoni crossing channel leads to the delay of tourists to and from the airport and they asked Raila who will be visiting the areas to line up like the any other person so that he can understand how tiresome it can get. Water shortages in Malindi, Kilifi and parts of Mombasa is a serious threat to the industry and in some places water is only available once in a week a situation that a tourist can definitely can not standard. However, Raila said the tourism industry can only get more money if vices like corruption, bureaucracy, security and investment issues are sorted out first but asked the Kenya Urban Roads Authority to quickly work on some of the major roads including the Airport road.
He said the local authorities should also help in repairing some of the bad roads more so those that are within the center of the city rather than sleeping on the job. Despite all the excuses he made, he promised to solve the problems as soon as possible and he ordered the Ministry of water to provided frequent flow of water to citizens in all parts of the country and that water shortage should not be any one’s problem to complain about . There are several factors that attract tourists to a country which is why every one has got to do what he/ she ought to do to protect the tourism industry, a tourism assistant minister Cecile Mbarire mentioned that politicians have got to make sure there is peace in the country. She then assured all tourists who would like to visit Kenya’s tourist attractions that Kenya is as peaceful and safe as before and will stay peaceful even after the general election.
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