Ethical Safari Kenya: Why Taita Hills is the Future of Sustainable Travel
- By Bena Roberts | Ethical Safari Specialist for Women
- May 13
- 3 min read
The Reality of Ethical Safari: Our First Taita Hills Tour Report
Our first Best Safaris ethical Safari took place in May 2026.
It was a monumental moment for me as I had planned the itinerary with the help of our charity partners (CWC Kenya). If you don’t know, my name is Bena Roberts and after a lifetime of being an Analyst and Technology Teacher, I changed my career.
In November I got the opportunity to join Best Safaris and I said that if I did - everything I did had to be non-classic Safari. My aim was to revolutionise the travel industry, single handed.
Create women only cultural and Safari tours, banish Jeep Fatigue, travel in the Green Seasons where there is less tourism to ensure jobs for staff during down time.
Most of these I got right, not everything went as planned - but, it's all about the learning experience.
The Good!
Despite a war, fuel crisis and lots of other messy things going on, our tour went ahead. By travelling in the Green Season, we had 40% reduction of vehicles at sightings.
The true base of being ethical came through in the latter part. We started the tour as classic tourists ensuring that a lot of wildlife was seen and enjoyed, before getting into three main areas
Anti-Poaching initiatives
Reaching children in schools with sanitation towel initiatives
Ethical tourism in tribal villages
I am not sure I can explain the impact of these initiatives, but I promise you at some point of the tour, everyone cried! It was an emotional, fun experience that you really have never …yes NEVER experienced before.
It had nothing to do with being sold to, cost, being asked for money, forced to buy something. It was about learning at every opportunity and opening your eyes to the new world. The tribes are changing, the world is changing but the tribes are adapting extremely fast to ensure long term prosperity.
Prosperity while holding on to true beliefs, traditions and ideals that have been passed through generations.
The Bad
Somethings were harder to achieve than others. We still have to hone into some areas of the tour to make them easier to understand. When we visited the fishpond project, we should have explained that the tribe used to once poach giraffe meat for a living. But now, they have a new income from fish farming. One protein is replaced by another healthier choice.
So what we learned is that protein is important to tribes and my replacing one source with a sustainable self fishing source, we provide a legal and more sustainable future to the tribe.
Also, people forget that for poachers every day their life is in danger and many are killed or eaten by wildlife. This is important to note that anti-poaching initiatives help local population survival too. Not only wildlife.
But I have taken all of these notes and will streamline our message moving forward.
The Ugly
There is still a lot of poverty in the developing areas. But we are getting there. Giving the children re-usable sanitary towels was a joy. The girls were over the moon and laughed with joy at the underwear that we gave to them to wear the sanitary towels. It was so lovely to see. Really one of my best days ever.
Our next Female Joining Group Safari is on October 11th.
However, we will be creating this new itinerary for Lion’s Bluff and Amboseli national parks as a Safari add on or a 3 night/ 4 day package. Let me know if you have any questions.
Ethical Safari Kenya, Women's Travel Kenya, Taita Hills Conservation, Sustainable Tourism, Anti-Poaching Kenya, Lions Bluff Safari.
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