Conservation groups have gone to court seeking the demolition of luxury safari lodges in the Maasai Mara that they say are blocking migration corridors used by wildebeest and other wildlife.
The petition, filed by the East Africa Law Society, Natural Justice, JustAct and the Africa Centre for Peace and Human Rights, names Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC, Marriott International Inc, Lazizi Mara Limited, the Narok County Government and several government agencies as respondents. It targets the Ritz-Carlton Maasai Mara Safari Camp, Sala’s Camp and Elewana Sand River Masai Mara.
The petitioners allege the Ritz-Carlton property was built despite an active government moratorium on new tourism facilities within protected areas, and that the camp began operating without a valid Environmental Impact Assessment licence. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton have not publicly responded to the specific claims in the petition.
The case also seeks a court-supervised audit of all accommodation facilities operating within the reserve’s Low Use Zone and Mara River Ecological Zone.
Conservationists say construction, vehicle traffic and human activity near migration routes are disrupting animal movements at a time when wildlife populations are already under pressure from climate change. According to figures cited in the case, wildebeest numbers in one key migration route fell from about 58,000 to roughly 34,200 between 2023 and 2025.
The Mara supports one of the world’s largest overland mammal migrations and generates significant tourism revenue for Kenya’s economy, a tension conservationists say has fueled rapid, sometimes unauthorized, lodge development in and around the reserve.
The case adds to a series of legal challenges this year over tourism development in the Mara ecosystem, including earlier petitions targeting other lodge developments blamed for disrupting migration routes. No hearing date has yet been made public.
