Lead image for MPs Oppose Plan to Abolish Kenya's Tourism Research Institute in New Bill.
A parliamentary committee is pushing back against the proposal to dissolve the country's tourism research agency and transfer its work to the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB), exposing a dispute over whether the institute's problems stem from its structure or from years of inadequate financing.
- The Tourism and Wildlife Committee rejected the proposed merger during a meeting with the sector’s stakeholders as it considered the Tourism (Amendment) Bill, 2026.
- Aside from dismantling the Tourism Research Institute (TRI), the proposed legislation also aims to abolish the Tourism Finance Corporation, transferring the two institutions' assets and obligations to KTB while sending their employees to the Public Service Commission (PSC).
- The proposed abolition of the Tourism Finance Corporation, a specialist source of financial assistance and business advice for tourism investors and entrepreneurs, raises a separate concern for tourism businesses.
The bill, sponsored by Majority Leader Kimani Ichung'wah, is part of a broader attempt to consolidate Kenya's government agencies bureaucracy.
The proposed restructuring would leave KTB responsible for tourism research, market intelligence, and the publication of tourism statistics. All assets, liabilities, agreements, and other legal obligations of the dismantled bodies would move to KTB. However, the decision to not absorb the affected employees into KTB has been challenged by the committee’s members who questioned how research would be done without the people who did it.
“Most developed countries have succeeded because they have invested heavily in research. A proposal in the Bill to have TRI absorbed by KTB would hurt the sector,” the committee chairman, MP Kareke Mbiuki said.
Tourism Principal Secretary Julius Bitok has also stressed the importance of preserving the research function. He has not opposed the proposed restructuring outright, but has called for the institute's research role to be protected and adequately financed.
MP Mbiuki and PS Bitok both attributed the research institute's underperformance to inadequate funding rather than its structure. In May, the same committee raised concerns that TRI, KTB, the Tourism Fund and other agencies had received no allocation in the proposed 2026/27 budget.