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.
Citation
Master of ArtsSponsorhip
University of NairobiPublisher
University of Nairobi Faculty of Arts, University of Nairobi,Kenya