The Team Behind Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris
Kenya Walking Survivors Safaris Ltd
- Located In:
- Size:
- 10-20 employees (Founded in 2003)
- Member Of:
- Eco Tourism & Kenya Wildlife Services
- Tour Types:
- Custom budget & mid-range tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $64 to $490 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
Reviews
Email Ashok Singh | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
An experience of a lifetime that got ruined…
Pros:
They can customize packages for your needs.
Affordable to an extent (Don’t forget to bargain though)
They also do safaris in Uganda and Tanzania
Cons:
They do not deliver what they promise.
There is a vast disconnect between the Guide/Driver and Mr.Otieno. The guide controls what you do on your trip. We missed 3 (2 evening (1 Amboseli, 1 Mara) and 1 morning at Nakuru) game drives and one was shortened (The last morning at Mara) as the guide was in a hurry to get out of the park. We did phone and also email Mr.Otieno to get things sorted however, nothing worked. He kept on promising that all will be right and as per the promised itinerary however, the guide kept doing what he wanted. The guide/driver (Anthony) who took us around for 7 days was experienced doing the same thing for 17 years however for them, it’s business. The guide started throwing tantrums as we spoke to Mr.Otieno regarding the game drives that he refused to take.
They fail to understand the needs of customers. In my case, we were 4 wildlife enthusiasts in a single vehicle; all disappointed with the way we were treated. Kenyan wildlife was my dream come true with this trip however, the guide ruined it (He and his tantrums).
I would still have rated them a “5” if they could just stick to what was promised as per the itinerary.
Dear Mr.Otieno, You must start understanding what people look for and deliver what you promise. This is a business for you; however, for us travelers, it’s a dream to plan and execute something like this.
Email Sarah | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
BEWARE: Please do not book before reading this!!
When my mom and I agreed we wanted to come to Africa this year, I contacted multiple safari companies. Kenya Walking (KW) was the fastest to respond. I also chose to go with them because they are local, the reviews online seemed great, and it was in our budget. We paid half then, and half when we got here on July 17th. We were supposed to have a 15 day Kenya and Tanzania trip.
Our first 10 days, all in Kenya, were fantastic. We were very satisfied with the experience and nothing went wrong. However, on our 11th day, when we were supposed to go to Tanzania, everything dissolved into chaos. The driver who was supposed to pick us up at the border was not there. There was a group before us to told us they had been waiting at the border a day, and they did eventually get picked up. We were worried, but we waited there like the company told us to do. KW kept saying they would be there shortly. After hours in the hot car, we finally went to the hotel. KW told us to get a room there (we paid for it), and that the driver would arrive in the morning. The next day, after calling and waiting for hours, still no driver. KW hung up on me and then just stopped answering the phone.
We were finally picked up, just as we were leaving to go back to Amboseli, and taken to Tanzania. The next 5 days there ( we stayed a day extra because of all this) were awful. No permits, hotels, or meals were paid for. We would be waiting at the park gate for hours until either a permit came through, or we paid for it ourselves (it is way more expensive to pay for permits yourself. we paid $280 just to get into serengeti). There were a couple middle men between KW and us, and all of them were calling us telling us a different story or a different plan. The hotels we did stay at, we either paid for or the owner let us stay there, despite not being paid yet. Of our 5 days in Tanzania, only 1 was very good, and we had to pay for hotels that night. Between my mom and I, KW had been paid $440 each day for us to be there. That money was nowhere to be seen. I soon found out the likely cause
Fortunately, getting back to Nairobi was smooth. There was a driver there to pick us up. By this time, I had peiced together some of the story. Our driver then told me the rest.
KW is run by a guy named OT. Last year, OT apparently spent the equivalent of $500,000 on a peice of land with tourist money. He thought the land investment would return a profit by the time the tourists arrived in june/july. The guy who sold him the land was a conman, and the money was lost. So, clients were stuck in the same situation. At the time, OT had his tour company license taken away. Somehow, perhaps with a bribe, he got it back. He also seems to have doctored his reviews online (there is warning on trip adviser now about it). This year, it seems he may have done something similar, lost all the company's money. This disaster unfolded starting on Saturday, July 28th, when the group before us got stuck at the border. It has been one week since then, and now the company's website is down, multiple guests (including myself) have filed reports in the Kenya Police office and with the Kenya Tourist Police, and the drivers are doing the same because they have not been paid. Our drivers were so kind, I feel terrible that they have not received compensation for their time and work, as this is their livelihood. I was also told there are 16 people stuck at the Tanzanian border, and more tour groups stuck around the country. We received an email from KW promising to refund us by certain dates later this year, but I have doubts that will happen.
What a terrible situation that has impacted so many people. We feel fortunate that this didn't happen before we got here or right after, because we did have a great first 10 days.
BR
Email Andreza | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fraud
We booked a 4 day safari with Mr Otieno on May. It was supposed to start on August 4 at 8:30.
We kept contact with him throught email until August 31. On August 2 we tried to contact him without success. The website was off. All the telephones off. We read coments on trip advisor and safari bookings that he disappeared since August 1.
Today he didn’t show up to pick us up. We are going to the tourists police.
AE
Email Cris | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fraud!!!Be aware
We booked a 4 days trip safari for Kenya 3 months ago. I already payed and have received an email saying:
The company
has technical problems and therefore cannot give the required
services.You will receive the funds
between 45-90 working days...I am calling them and nobody answer..We are going to the police office.
BR
Email Andreza | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Went to the police
We went to the police station after Mr. Otieno didn’t show up as agreed.
After 3 police station the 4 was the correct place. It’s at Ngong road besides kenyatta hospital.
The policeman in charge of the case said he has 10 cases like ours at the moment.
He said that last year he had a similar problem and he payed everybody. I just don’t know how we couldn’t find coments about that on the internet.
If you are in a similar situation, I recommend you book another safari because he won’t show up. And if you come to Kenya, go to the station make a complaint so he can be sued and stop stealing from people.
CH
Email Daniel | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Unfortunately NOT satisfying!
We booked and paid our trip 6 months ago already and our trip started mid July. Unfortunately it all started with a misunderstanding already when we had our meeting/introduction in the beginning. Because we had organised a city walking tour ourselves after the intro (which we told OT about beforehand) but he he other plans for us which were at the same time he tried to move things and told us our tour would start a day later, which we actually didn’t really want. He said not to worry, we should relax and the guide in Ugands will be informed about the day that was supposed to be scratched from our trip (which we also didn’t want). We had to then start our trip a day later than expected, which was a pity but ok, because at the end of our trip we had an extra day before our flights went. We had also booked a hotel ourselves for that last evening.
When the trip finally started we had a fantastic first guide named Frederick who was very knowledgable and told us a lot about the animals, the country and it’s culture. After that we had friendly drivers but not really someone I would call a guide. They weren’t very talkative and didn’t inform us.
We started getting worried in Uganda when our guide wasn’t informed by the office of the change in itenerary and it was even possible to change it. We then sent OT an email, complaining about how he handled the situation in the first place and that he shouldn’t scratch one day of our safari because we actually paid for it. Furthermore we just wanted to know how the rest of our safari would go because now it was all a bit confusing how it would continue. And if we would stay for the whole trip then we would have to cancel our hotel for the last evening. He hadn’t replied ( which was odd because before our tour started the office replied VERY quickly) for more than a week. We asked our guides/drivers to ask the office to contact us because they must be in contact with the office all the time. The drivers just answered that they couldn’t reach the office, which was also very odd because they had to get info from the office to change drivers. After the 3rd driver told us that story we knew it was bullshit. We phoned and got through immediately twice!! Unfortunately OT was NEVER available to talk, he never phoned back and after a those two phone calls we weren’t able to get through either. They blocked us.
Then we told our driver to take us to the office on our way from Naivasha to Kenyan boarder, because the LACK OF COMMUNICATION AND THE NON-EXISTING CUSTOMER SERVICE really frustrated us. At the office we couldn’t get answers to why they had never replied and we found out that our itenerary had been changed by OT (via phone) which was a big surprise to us. If we hadn’t demanded to go to the office we would have never found out because the drivers didn’t know about the change.
Then we went to the boarder to Tansania. We waited for 2 hours for our next driver, who had more than enough time to get there on time, just to find out that he wasn’t coming anymore and we should stay st a nearby hotel. No one from the office called us to inform and update us, not even to say sorry for the inconvenience. The next morning we waited for an update until 10:30 (we actually tried to phone and find out what’s going on-that didn’t help because they didn’t know themselves and they didn’t have a plan B) that our next driver would be there at 11. We waited at the boarder again just to wait for 2 hours AGAIN!! He finally got there but we basically missed a whole day and we missed a game drive.
The next guide named Francis in Tansania was great as well. At last we could enjoy our trip again. We had two great days in Ngorongoro and Serengeti. Our last day, because our trip started a day late, we had to speed from Serengeti to Nairobi airport to catch our flight in the evening. Why OT planned the last day like that we will never know. He said there was enough time to even do a game drive in the morning and get to Nairobi Airport on time in the evening. That was bullshit. We even asked him to change it but he said it would be fine. We missed our last game drive and the guide had to drive 140km/h on a 80km/h road to get us there on time.
Summary:
The things we saw during our trip were amazing!! We had two great guides.
BUT the people working in the office and especially OT have been incompetent and very unprofessional. There is a total lack of communication at a time when it should be the best ever because it was DURING our trip, and there is definitely no customer service whatsoever!!! It was really disappointing because before our trip they seemed very professional and they responded very quickly to emails.
I just hope we, and other groups we met that also had a lot of problems which were even worse than ours, had some bad luck and that other groups won’t be stuck with this kind of mess!
IN
Email Jigna | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
FRAUD FRAUD FRAUD....Beware
It is a fraud company. They have taken $500 as advance
Our tour is starting from 9th August and today, 2 days prior to the safari, I have received a mail to inform us that they have cancelled the tour due to some technical problems. They are saying that they will refund the money but i am pretty much sure that that would never happen.
UA
Email Valerii | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fraud!!!!
Before doing payment we examined the all feedbacks about the company. Everything was Ok. And in 1 day after we did the payment the company diaapearred and many many tourists sticked in the situation that the company did not serve it. I have no idea how can we get back our money.
US
Email NP | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Fraud!
Our honeymoon trip is in 3 days and we just received an email that the company has technical problems and therefore cannot give the required services. You will receive the funds between 45-90 working days. I'm really panicking
US
Email Paul Chaudury | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Received an email they have technical problem and won't do the tour that I already paid
We paid in March for a safari on Aug 22. Today I received an email from the company that they have technical problem and won't provide the service. In other words won't provide the tour. We have already bought non-refundable air tickets from USA costing over $2000. I replied to the person, Julius muchiri, who emailed me from Kenya Walking safari company but I haven't received any reply yet. I always had the fear of booking with small individually owned compnies in a foreign country. I won't give up. Will do everything I can to let all African authorities know what happened and seek compensation.