By Edward Indakwa
Kenya: At his inauguration, President Uhuru Kenyatta said wildlife poaching and the destruction of our environment had no future in this country and promised to strike a ‘decisive blow’ against all those that threaten our environmental heritage.
Following that address, pundits expected the President to institute immediate and far-reaching changes at KWS, a key national institution whose tentacles affect agriculture, water, energy, tourism and national security. But that was not to be.
Nearly a year down the line, the President’s promised decisive blow against poachers is yet to materialise.
Instead, and in a span of months, poachers have brazenly attacked and killed rhinos – the most protected wildlife species in Kenya – in Nairobi National Park, barely kilometres from the KWS headquarters, as well as Nakuru National Park.
To be fair, under Environment Cabinet Secretary Judi Wakhungu and Principal Secretary Richard Lesiyampe, the Environment ministry is, for the first time since independence, under the stewardship of Government officials who understand what needs to be done.
Dr Lesiyampe is himself a former KWS deputy director while Prof Wakhungu’s research interests are said to include “biodiversity and natural resource management”.
But at organisational level, the wildlife body is rudderless, its board of trustees having stood dissolved the moment the new Wildlife Conservation and Management Act was enacted into law last month.
Equally, while current KWS Director William Kibet Kiprono is a highly trained and experienced State officer, KWS is a strategic institution with trans-boundary operations requiring immense funding, global goodwill and lobbying within government(s), the corporate and NGO worlds and diplomatic circles.
Kiprono also presides over a boardroom staffed by experienced military officers (several are graduates of the prestigious KDF National Defence College in Karen.
The writer is Alternate Editor with The Nairobian at The Standard Group
