Milliam Murigi @millymur1

Since the coronavirus pandemic began keeping visitors at home, the cheetahs and gazzeles at the Stedmak Gardens Animal Park have enjoyed the quiet and now venture out into areas of their exhibits they usually avoided.

The baboons and the monkeys miss the children, though, and are seeking more attention from park keepers.

Some things, however, haven’t changed. Despite the park being open to visitors, daily animal food costs have put the nearly 21-year-old park in a dire financial situation.

“We have already lost the bulk of our revenue and are living off whatever reserves we had left since there is harldy any entrance fee colleted as visitors keep away,” says Athumani Fenesi the park manager.

This is despite the park and hundreds of others across the country being left open to visitors and now, administrators are being forced to deal with the pandemic’s financial impact.

Private parks are more affected compared to public parks because most of them rely heavily on their hotels to attract visitors.

Fenesi says it’s ‘business as usual’ when it comes caring for the animals with the only difference being that there are no guests to educate, inspire and engage with the animals they have.

The Karen based park, which used to receive about 60 to 100 visitors on a single day is now receiving about 20 visitors on a good day.

Fenesi says operations in the institution must still go on, such as feeding the animals and providing medical care and general care to ensure the animals’ well-being.

“We are trying to keep the animals on the same schedules they had before the pandemic, however, with no revenue coming in from visitors, we are concerned about being able to properly do so,” he says. 

“Our restaurant’s closure has had a major impact on our park business. The park and the hotel business are dependent on each other and that is why the park business is suffering,” he adds. 

According to him, although the hotel is still offering takeaway services, the park was forced to lay off about 10 staff members because of low visitor turnout.

Fenesi says visitors provide more than 90 per cent of the park revenue through entrance fees collected, but attendance and revenue are falling short.

With the restaurant closed, major events canceled and few tourists, the park is struggling to bring in even half of its revenue that it needs to keep the park running. 

The hotel has been closed for nearly a month now. Normally this is supposed to be the busiest month for the hotel and the park since schools are closed, but the opposite is happening.

“Since there is no limitation as to how many people can visit the park, we expected a boom from people who are not travelling and those doing staycations, but the uptick of Covid-19 cases in the country and the partial lockdown, seem to be keeping people away. People are afraid,” he adds.

Walking around the park, I came across only one couple who turned out to be the only park visitors for that day.

This was a clear indication that the business is running from worse to worst. The only hopefull thing was the staff feeding the animals, an assurance that the animals haven’t been neglected. 

“Feeding the animals is the biggest task here, and needs one to have a stable source of income.

For example, we have four lions, which eat 10 kilogrammes of meat every day for six days.

Without an income, I bet it will be hard to feed them and that is why we are calling on the government to consider allowing hotels and restaurants to reopen immediately,” he urges.

He says, the parks hasn’t fully recovered from last year’s loss, when the businesses shut down for the longest period in their history as the government gathered efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus.

“Our animal park is still open and we are adhering to all laid down measures by the Ministry of Health. You need not to fear when visiting our park, which is open every day from 9am” he urges.

The hotel also has a heated swimming pool, accommodation, amusement park, and a 9D virtual reality motion theatre, which are still operational. Guests are still enjoying sumptuous meals, but on a take-away basis.

Other animal sanctuaries affected by the pandemic, include Giraffe Manor popular for visitors dining with giraffes, Nairobi Mamba Village Restaurant and Shedrick Wildlife Trust, which runs an orphaned elephant rescue and rehabilitation programme.

With no sit-down hotel services, most people have stopped visiting the establisments.

“With no sit-in restaurant services allowed and almost zero attendance, finding money to take care of the animals is a daunting task,” disclosed a staff member at Giraffe Manor.