Community involvement in management of the Cultural heritage: a case study of Gede Heritage Site in Kenya

Abstract

The focus of this study was on determining whether the local community around Gede National Monument is involved in the management of the cultural heritage. Since the attainment of independence, many African countries have received overwhelming response from communities to have a stake in the management of their cultural heritage. The main objective of this study was to explore ways in which the local community can be incorporated in the management of the Gede National Monument. Specifically we wanted to find out how local community involvement can enhance the management of the monument, and explore ways in which indigenous knowledge systems can be incorporated in conservation of the monument. The subjects of the study were the community living around Gede National Monument. The study was qualitative in nature and semi-structured interviews and key informants were used to collect data. The study established that there is absolutely no local community involvement at Gede Monument. One of the main reasons for this is that the Antiquities and Monument Acts, which is used as the legal framework by NMK, does not include community participation. There"is a-lso mistrust between NMK management and the local community at Gede Monument. A-s"a result of these findings, the study recommends that NMK should revise or come up with a new legislation that clearly incorporates community involvement in its management activities. NMK should ensure that communities are involved in all stages, right from the time of project design through evaluation.