Kenya's Tourism Ministry and Centum Foundation seek US$1m for Mount Kenya

Kenya's Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife and the Centum Foundation have partnered to raise US$1 million (about KES 129 million) for the five-year Friends of Mount Kenya Initiative, the Kenyan news site Capital FM reported on 16 October 2026. Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Miano and the foundation formalised the arrangement.

The initiative works with the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB). It aims to make Mount Kenya a leading global adventure tourism destination by improving the visitor experience, expanding mountain rescue capacity and creating economic opportunities for communities around the mountain. The partnership followed talks with the Magical Kenya rebranding taskforce, led by MaryAnn Musangi.

The ministry provides policy leadership. The Centum Foundation coordinates fundraising, programme implementation, governance and impact reporting. KWS identifies and carries out priority work within its conservation and park management mandate, and KTB, through Magical Kenya, supports destination marketing and international promotion.

The first money is to go on mountain connectivity, trail marking, sanitation, emergency response and visitor information services. The programme then moves to developing mountain guides and porters, before larger infrastructure investments.

If Mount Kenya reached 100,000 visitors a year, the partners project, tourism spending could be between KES 4.4 billion and KES 6.6 billion a year, supporting between 5,300 and 7,800 direct and indirect jobs. They put government revenue at KES 660 million to KES 1.05 billion and revenue for small and medium-sized enterprises at KES 890 million to KES 1.55 billion.

The partners describe these figures as potential long-term outcomes that depend on investment, market growth and further validation, not guaranteed returns.

An annual Friends of Mount Kenya Summit is planned to raise funds, show progress and bring stakeholders together. The initiative will also use the planned 2027 Mount Everest expedition of Kenyan mountaineer Martin Mumo, the programme's ambassador, to draw international attention. Mumo, who is also head of tax at Centum Investment Company Plc, summited Ama Dablam in Nepal in November 2025 and aims to climb all 14 peaks above 8,000 metres.

The Centum Foundation delegation included Fred Murimi, managing partner at Centum Capital Partners and a trustee of the foundation.

Capital FM describes Mount Kenya as Africa's second-highest mountain and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with a water catchment that serves more than seven million people. The travel trade site Tourism Update reported on 19 May 2022 that then Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala raised KES 10 million on a four-day climb of the mountain for visitor facilities including sanitation and hiking trails, to be spent through KWS.