The cultural Safari was developed after noticing that mainstream tour operators in Kenya tailor their tourist circuits in what they want the tourist to see. A tourist is picked from the airport, driven to one of the posh hotels in the city and the following day is driven on Safari to our famous national parks and games reserves staying in one of the posh lodges and tented camps. En-route, he gets to see many Kenyans walking along the route some carrying heavy loads on their backs or on their heads and start asking questions. The driver guide tells the truth or if he chooses, he keeps quite and gets offended by these kinds of questions.
The co-founder of Woni Safaris (one of our partners), William who himself is a lead tour guide in Kenya chooses to tell them the truth, that Kenya is one of the poorest countries in the world and those people are peasant farmers trying to heck a living the hard way. Along the route, the driver guide stops in curio shades run and managed by small scale indigenous Kenyans and convinces the tourist that gifts are cheaper there than in the city. The tourists get to learn about the famous Akamba wood carvers and the Kisii swapstones but does not get to meet the Mukamba or the Kisii. He than enquires about how many tribes are in Kenya. He is told that there are 42 in number but by the time he leaves the country, he managers to meet only 3 tribes to the most. Top on the list is the Maasai, then the Kikuyu who sell the curious and the driver guides tribe. He wants to know more about the Kenyan people and more so their culture as even in his itinerary there was no mention of a visit to a Masai village but nevertheless less the driver guide manages to sell the same to them on a private arrangement. Upon his return to his home country, they start communication and the tourist expresses his wish it come back to Kenya but on a private arrangement with the tour guide. The main interest is to get a chance of interacting with the people, learn their way of life and their culture. After two successful request of this nature, the need to start Woni Safaris was seen