Tsavo National Park in Kenya is set to develop a new tourist attraction: the park will package its World War One battlefield as a cultural heritage sight for tourists.
The package will include a visit to Mwashoti Hill, the location of a British fort and cemeteries for both British and German soldiers. Other sites will include the Voi-Taveta railway, built by the British to fight Germans at Salaita Hill, and a building in Taveta where the first shot of the war in East Africa was fired.
In addition to the new package, a new monument has been erected by the Saravo Group of Hotels on Mwashoti Hill, to commemorate the Africans who were involved in the war as porters, cooks and guards for the British soldiers. Willie Mwadilo, General Manager of the Taita Sarova Hills and Saltlicks Hotels said that the monument will be one of the main attractions in the package, adding: “So many Africans died during the war but are not remembered.”
The First World War had a marked effect on East Africa, being the longest war to take place in the region, mostly within today’s Tsavo West National Park. An estimated two million Africans fought in the war, with around one million casualties.
Mwadilo concluded: “This is the only memory we have of thousands of unknown Africans who died during World War One. We hope to honour them in death.”
