Safari workers fight to live Loss of tourism decimated lives of travel and hospitality workers

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Before the pandemic, Kenya was the third-largest tourism destination in Africa, with tourism contributing $1.6 billion to the national economy and creating 1.1 million jobs, or more than 8% of the country’s employment. The coronavirus was disastrous: During the high season between July and October of last year, most bookings were canceled, causing layoffs and salary cuts, and many tour companies shut down. The loss of international tourism in Kenya and other East African nations, with little assistance from local governments, has decimated the livelihoods of thousands of travel and hospitality workers, who have had to take on odd jobs and borrow money to survive.

Onyango, a single mother of two, had been making the equivalent of around $1,000 each month, which she said was enough to provide for her family. Now, she earns between $100 and $150 a month by cooking and packaging tilapia fish and sardines for neighbors, friends and clients she found through Facebook.

Kenya eased its lockdown restrictions in July, but the worldwide surge of the highly contagious delta variant, as well as the low vaccination rates in the region, have kept most tourists at bay. Still, tourism workers are grateful for the small number of visitors that have been trickling in for safaris and coastal vacations in recent months.

“We knew we would not get the vaccines as quickly as America and Europe,” said George Gituku, the owner of Sandrage Safaris in Kenya, “so under the circumstances we are thankful that we have some business.”

In 2019, Kenya received more than 2 million international visitors, a record number and a nearly 4% increase from the year before. In 2020, overseas arrivals plummeted by 71.5% to 579,600, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Between January and June this year, the country welcomed just over 300,000 travelers, the state-run Tourism Research Institute reported.

Since June, Sandrage Safaris in Nairobi has received about 30 guests a month, a significant drop from the 100 guests they were averaging in the 2019 high season. Most of the visitors were Americans who were feeling optimistic after getting vaccinated, Gituku said, but Kenya’s low vaccination rate — currently just over 3% of the population — has caused many of his clients to postpone.

Safari workers are hoping that when their clients go back and share their positive experiences with friends and family, it will encourage more people to book trips. Many companies are paying their employees daily rates based on bookings they receive, which, workers say, is not enough for them to pay their bills and the debt they accumulated last year.

“Whatever comes in now, you have to decide whether to put it toward your debts or use it to survive on,” said Michael Segera, a 53-year-old tour operator.

Last year, when Segera’s clients canceled their tours, he moved to Nairobi to live with his three adult children. For months they lived off one meal a day, and Segera worked odd jobs so that he could pay for basic expenses and the Wi-Fi connection, which his daughter needed for her online university classes.

“It is very hard to be a parent when you don’t know what will come tomorrow,” Segera said.

Over the past two years, the Kenyan government has paid about $20 million to workers in wildlife conservancies to keep them operational and protect animals from poaching, but safari workers have not received any individual support. Several safari companies have managed to retain employees on reduced salaries, but many operators have had to let their workers go.

Uganda, another popular safari destination in East Africa, is also experiencing a slow tourism season, even after partially lifting lockdown measures in late July. Foreign visitors dropped by nearly 70% in 2020, to 473,085 from 1,547,000 in 2019, according to the country’s ministry of tourism. Similar to the experience in Kenya, most safari workers in Uganda find themselves deep in debt and without work.

Augustine Kikomeko, 46, a safari guide based in Kampala, said that, to support their families, most tour guides have had to sell property, land or their vehicles. Many are having to work several jobs, he said.

“The airport had opened, but there are barely any arrivals,” said Kikomeko, a father of three who used to make about $800 per month as a safari guide.

Caroline Onyango delivers fish to a client Sept. 22 in Ngong, Kenya. She has worked in tourism for more than 15 years.