When Marriott International announced in February that it would open a Ritz-Carlton luxury safari camp in Masai Mara National Game Reserve in Kenya, it described the destination as the peak of luxury travel in Africa.
The Ritz-Carlton Masai Mara Safari Camp, Marriott said, would have 20 tented suites, each with “a separate living area, private sunken lounge, infinity plunge pool, and indoor and outdoor showers.” Located on the banks of the Sand River, the camp would give guests “a front-row seat to experience the majesty of the Great Migration,” during which millions of animals move between Tanzania’s Serengeti and the Mara in search of better grazing and water.
The camp, which costs about $3,500 per night, opened in August, and marked an exciting expansion for Marriott, a high-end hotel company. It was Ritz-Carlton’s first sub-Saharan property and its first foray into safari tourism.
But for at least some Masai people, many of whom live in villages that surround the game reserve, and for local guides who spend their days showing tourists the park, the prospect of the camp was far less appealing.
“The Masai Mara is a fragile environment that is already overpopulated with camps for tourists,” said Meitamei Olol Dapash, a Masai elder and the director of the Institute for Maasai Education, Research and Conservation. “The location of the Ritz-Carlton is one of the last places in the Mara that isn’t built on.” He and other opponents of the camp are demanding that the companies tear it down, restore the landscape to its original state and plant native trees before next year’s migration.
In August, Dr. Dapash, who has a doctorate in sustainability education, filed a lawsuit accusing Marriott International, Ritz-Carlton, their Kenyan partner Lazizi Mara and local authorities of building the camp in the middle of a corridor used by wildebeest during the Great Migration, which happens primarily between July and September. A spokeswoman for Marriott said the company could not comment on ongoing litigation. Lazizi did not respond to requests for comment, but told Reuters in August that the camp is not in a migration corridor. Experts disagree.
“The proposed lodge sits directly on one of the major wildlife corridors between Serengeti and the Masai Mara,” Grant Hopcraft, an ecologist who has been tagging wildebeest movement in the Mara since 1996, wrote in July in a letter to Kenya’s Environment and Land Court.
Joseph Ogutu, a Kenyan researcher at the University of Hohenheim in Germany who has studied wildlife migration in the Mara for more than 30 years, agreed with Dr. Grant.
“Data does not lie, specifically when it has been collected over a 50-year period and it says the same thing: That place in the river is critical,” he said.
Exponential Growth
Every year during the migration, more than 250,000 tourists travel to Kenya to watchwildebeest, zebras, gazelles and other animals on the move .
The number of camps and lodges has grown along with the increase in visitors. Experts said there were 95 camps in the reserve in 2012, and 175 in 2024.
Dr. Ogutu said everyone should be alarmed by this rapid growth. With more tourists come more cars to take them on safaris through the reserve. The cars drive off-road, scaring animals and harming the vegetation they graze on. In 2023, a viral video showed safari vehicles full of tourists circling two cheetahs as they hunted and fed on an antelope.
“There are a lot of consequences,” Dr. Ogutu said, adding that wastewater from the lodges ends up in the Mara and Sand Rivers, and that light pollution and noise from tourists staying at the lodges also harm wildlife.
“What we see is that the tourism industry has been growing exponentially in Kenya since the 1900s, but the wildlife is declining exponentially and many species in the Mara have become extinct,” he said, referring to the roan antelope, African wild dog, lesser kudu and the oryx.
A Presidential Exemption
In 2023, local authorities adopted the Masai Mara Management Plan, which, among other things, placed a moratorium on the building of new lodges and camps in the game reserve. Because of the moratorium, Dr. Dapash and other activists say that the Ritz-Carlton camp should never have been approved.
“The county government has an agenda to bring in more luxury tourism at any cost and is willing to tramp on the rights of the community, violate the law, and even violate the wildlife and environment just to bring high-end tourism to the Mara,” he said.
In Kenya, before starting a project that could affect the environment, developers are supposed to consult with local communities and get approval from the National Environment Management Authority. This process includes conducting an environmental land assessment, which gauges how a camp or lodge will affect wildlife, vegetation, and water and air quality in the area.
In a letter to the head of NEMA, Felix K. Koskei, the chief of staff to Kenya’s president, William Ruto, granted Marriott “a one-time exemption” from the moratorium “as part of the government’s commitment to cultivate a favorable business environment and facilitate both domestic and foreign investment.”
To the Masai, the exemption seems like an opening for more luxury development.
“If Marriott and Ritz-Carlton are allowed to stay where they are, it will set a precedent and a culture that anyone who wants to can operate this way, with no regard for the people and wildlife,” said Emmanuel Sananka, 26, a software engineer who grew up in the Mara and lives about half a mile away from the game reserve. “We need to send a message to our community that their voice matters even if Marriott has so much power.”
Dr. Dapash’s lawsuit says that with the help of the local Narok County government and NEMA, the companies did not follow the rules on development. In an email to The Times, Justin Landry, the general manager of the Ritz-Carlton Masai Mara Safari Camp, said an environmental impact assessment was conducted in April 2024 and that the development had been approved.
On Aug. 8, the same day that Dr. Dapash filed his lawsuit, Marriott’s regional vice president, Richard Collins, wrote to him, saying that the company’s local partner, Lazizi, followed all requirements to open the camp, including “obtaining the appropriate permits and approvals from relevant Kenyan authorities.”
The Narok County government and NEMA did not respond to requests for comment. In a letter to Dr. Dapash seen by The Times, NEMA said that it had held meetings with locals and gotten their consent to build the camp.
However, one of the men who was said to be at a meeting where Masai people approved the project, and whose signature appears on the documents saying the community supports construction of the camp, said he never attended such a meeting.
“They say I went to a meeting about the Ritz-Carlton, but I did not,” Julius Manchau Liaram, a Masai herder, said. “I wouldn’t have approved if I went.”
Mr. Liaram said that he went to the police and filed a report as soon as he heard that his name was being used. He said he feels that whoever put his name on the documents probably assumed he would never find out. “Many of our people have not gone to school, so some powerful people did not think we would say anything,” Mr. Liaram said. “They think we won’t stand up for ourselves.”
Walled Off From View
The Ritz-Carlton camp is surrounded by a makeshift wall of dirt and grass that keeps nonguests from looking in. On a recent drive around it, a guide pointed out tracks every few feet where animals had tried to climb over or walk through the wall.
Jonathan Koshal, 39, a Masai guide who owns the tour company Eye of Masai, said that the wall is a clear example of the company wanting to separate its guests from everyone else.
“Tourists don’t know what is happening to us because when they stay at a luxury camp, they are disconnected from the community,” Mr. Koshal added.
In recent years, conservationists have pushed for safari properties that leave little to no footprint, with fewer rooms and temporary tents instead of permanent structures. Smaller conservancies have also become more popular among tourists looking for low-impact experiences.
Across the continent, tour operators are looking for ways to focus on sustainability and regenerative travel. Sarah Dusek, the co-founder and chief executive of Few & Far, a company with an ecolodge in the Soutpansberg Mountains in Limpopo, South Africa, said it’s not enough to think of sustainability as merely not inflicting harm on communities in Africa. Few & Far’s Luvhondo ecolodge has six tented suites and is “rewilding” and restoring about 247,000 acres.
“We actively have to be making progress with doing good and making an impact and driving change,” she said.
Multinational ‘Parasites’
Dominic Kasoe, 30, who grew up near the reserve, emphasized that he wants tourism in the Mara and sees its benefits, but not at the expense of wildlife or the rights of locals.
“Multinational companies coming here and running rampant and without regard for us, the only way to describe them is parasites,” he said.
But Mr. Landry, the Ritz-Carlton camp’s manager, said the company “supports inclusive growth, fosters local pride and strengthens our connection to the community.” He said that 90 percent of the team at the camp comes from Kenya, with 40 percent drawn from the local community.
In early 2026, Marriott is slated to open a JW Marriott Mount Kenya Rhino Reserve and a JW Marriott luxury safari lodge in Serengeti National Park, a protected UNESCO World Heritage site. It already has a popular JW Marriott property nearby, and many locals stressed that they would welcome a Ritz-Carlton outside of a migratory passageway.
Masai elders, tour guides and activists largely agree that tourism is the lifeblood of the region, and they want it to continue, while better serving locals.
“Two generations of Masai children have gone to schools built by tourists, hospitals built by tourists, and benefited from scholarships that are given by tourists,” said Tilal Ole Sairowa, 71, a Masai elder and livestock keeper. “We do not want to stop tourism, we want it to be managed better by the local government and the park authorities.”
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Tariro Mzezewa, a former national correspondent at The Times, is a reporter who writes about culture and style.
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