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Kenya KPSGA

Some current KPSGA Examiners

The Kenya Professional Safari Guides Association (KPSGA) is an independent non-profit guide-initiated and managed association and examining body which offers a series of qualifications that act as industry standards by which all Kenyan safari guides can be measured. The examinations require guides to have knowledge of a broad range of topics, including flora and fauna; conservation; ethics, and hospitality standards.

The story of the Kenya Professional Safari Guide Association began in the late ’80s, when a young safari guide, just hired, realised that there was not a merit-based system that determined who got a job as a safari guide in Kenya. He saw that many of the driver guides were very knowledgeable and experienced yet had no independent way to advance in their careers. He became determined to change this. The guide in question is Royal African Safaris Founder, Royal African Foundation Founding Board Member, and Founding Chairman of the KPSGA, our very own Peter Silvester.

KPSGA team and 2011 Gold level candidates, including our own Indi Bilkhu, who was the first female successful KPSGA gold guide candidate.

Years later, and with substantial help from a number of experts, safari guides (including many other Royal African Safaris Partners), tour operators, national museums staff, faculty from training institutions and the Kenya Wildlife Service. The Bronze, Silver, and Gold KPSGA syllabuses and examinations were created, and the KPSGA was founded in 1996.

Over the years, thousands of guides have taken these examinations. They have improved the standards within the industry and provided the possibility of career advancement for individuals within it.

KPSGA members are also required to be responsible custodians of the environment and advocate for and participate in community-based and sustainable conservation practices, an area of alarming concern that has been identified as lacking among many practising guides in the country.

During Covid, we sponsored Zarek Cockar (KPSGA Gold level safari guide and independent trainer) to start free online courses for KPSGA Safari guides so they could continue advancing their knowledge when they could not be on safari. We also supported him to establish an Online Library for the KPSGA members, which has resources on various topics like Guide Skills and ethics, vehicles, first aid, astronomy, ecology, and all various flora and fauna.

More recently, a proposal was put forward by the examination committee, led by KPSGA Gold Guide: Willis Okech Oyugi (Assistant Professor of Environmental History at Sam Houston State University USA) to reform the Bronze, Silver and Gold KPSGA curricula and get the government’s newly created national accreditations for them, and currently, some of you are very kindly supporting this important work.

If you would like to support this work so that they can help many more guides in the industry progress in their careers and become better custodians of Kenya’s incredible natural heritage, you can donate to this initiative through our Royal African Foundation.

Donate

100% of your donation will go to the project you choose, and your donation to our registered 501(c)(3) organisation is tax-deductible as provided for by law. Please get in touch with us if you have any questions.

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