Kenya Wildlife Service is a state corporation under the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife established by an act of Parliament; Wildlife Conservation and Management Act CAP 376, of 1989, now repealed and replaced by the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act, 2013. At independence, the Government of Kenya committed itself to conserving wildlife for posterity with all the means at its disposal, including the places animals lived, forests and water catchment areas.
Kenya Wildlife Service conserves and manages national parks, wildlife conservation areas, and sanctuaries under its jurisdiction.
History
In 1989
Richard Leakey
Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (19 December 1944 – 2 January 2022) was a Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist and politician. Leakey held a number of official positions in Kenya, mostly in institutions of archaeology and wildlife cons ...
was appointed the head of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Department (WMCD) by President Daniel Arap Moi in response to the international outcry over the poaching of elephants and the impact it was having on the wildlife of Kenya.
Well-armed anti-poaching units were formed and were authorized to shoot poachers on sight. The poaching menace was dramatically reduced. The transformation of the Kenya Wildlife Service got World Bank approved grants worth $140 million. Richard Leakey, President Moi, and the WMCD made the international news headlines when a stockpile of 12 tons of ivory was burned in 1989 in Nairobi National Park.
These successes saw David Western appointed to serve as Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) by retired President Moi in 1994. Others who served as KWS Directors are:
* Kitili Mbathi
* William Kiprono
* Julius Kipng'etich
* Michael Wamithi
* Nehemiah Rotich
* Joseph Kioko
* Evans Mukolwe
On 20 July 2011 Kenya’s President
Mwai Kibaki
Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki (15 November 1931 – 21 April 2022) was a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013 and is regarded as one of Kenya's founding fathers.
He had previously se ...
set on fire nearly 5 tonnes of elephant ''ivory (''335 tusks), with an estimated value of USD$16m.
On 30 April 2016, Kenyan President
Uhuru Kenyatta
Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta (born 26 October 1961) is a Kenyan politician who served as the fourth president of Kenya from 2013 to 2022.
Kenyatta was chosen by Daniel Arap Moi as his preferred successor, but Kenyatta was defeated by opposition ...
set alight the largest ever pile of ivory for destruction in the Nairobi National Park. The pile consisted of 105 tonnes of elephant ivory from about 8,000 elephants and 1.35 tonnes of horns from 343
rhinoceros
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family (biology), family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member ...
es. Estimates for the total
black market
A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the ...
value of the destroyed contraband range from $150 million to $220 million. The
ivory
Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals ...
was transported to the site in shipping containers then stacked into towers up to 10 ft (3.0 m) tall and 20 ft (6.1 m) in diameter. The ivory towers took personnel from the Kenya Wildlife Service ten days to build. The pyre also contained exotic animal skins. The amount of ivory destroyed equaled about 5% of the global stock. Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba was also in attendance.
Central Island National Park
Central Island, also known as ''Crocodile Island'', is a volcanic island located in the middle of Lake Turkana in Kenya. It is also the location of Central Island National Park, which is governed by the Kenya Wildlife Service.
It is composed of ...
Mount Elgon National Park
Mount Elgon National Park is a national park northeast of Lake Victoria. The park covers an area of and is bisected by the border of Kenya and Uganda. The Ugandan part of the park covers while the Kenyan part covers . The Kenyan part of the p ...
Mount Longonot National Park
Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest.
Mount or Mounts may also refer to:
Places
* Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England
* Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...
*
Mwea National Reserve
The Mwea National Reserve is a nature reserve in Kenya. Its altitude ranges between , dominated by the Acacia-Commiphora bushland on the north shore of Kamburu Reservoir, at the confluence of Tana and Thiba Rivers. The other vegetation is mixed a ...
Ndere Island National Reserve
Ndere Island is a small island () in Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria in Kenya. It was gazetted as the Ndere Island National Reserve in November 1986 and has since that time been uninhabited.
''Ndere'' means "meeting place" in Dholuo. According to ...
Shaba National Reserve
Shaba National Reserve is a protected area in Isiolo County in northern Kenya to the east of the Samburu and Buffalo Springs national reserves. Together, the three reserves form a large protected area.
The Shaba reserve has dramatic scenery i ...
Sibiloi National Park
Sibiloi National Park lies on the northeastern shore of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. Established in 1973 by the government of Kenya for the protection of wildlife and paleontologist sites there, it covers and is internationally known for its ...
*
Tana River Primate Reserve The Tana River Primate National Reserve is a former national wildlife reserve in south-eastern Kenya. It existed from 1976 to 2007.
Geography
Most of the area was semi-arid savanna but a small portion, about , was made up of small patches of rive ...
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...
and their habitats that are in particular danger. They have
forest
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
elephant
Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...
and
rhino
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...
projects to help them recover from
poaching
Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights.
Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set ag ...
. The
hirola
The hirola (''Beatragus hunteri''), also called the Hunter's hartebeest or Hunter's antelope, is a critically endangered antelope species found on the border between Kenya and Somalia. It was first described by the big game hunter and zoologi ...
, which is in danger of
extinction
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds ( taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed ...
, is also being monitored.
Within KWS there are several services, each responsible for a different area of work:
Community Wildlife Service
This branch of the KWS works outside the national parks. They work instead in areas such as
wildlife corridor
A wildlife corridor, habitat corridor, or green corridor is an area of habitat (ecology), habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities or structures (such as roads, development, or logging). This allows an exchange of i ...
s, and teach the communities living there to encourage conservation and look after their resources.
Security Services
The job of this service is to eliminate poaching in the national parks and stop illegal trade. The Kenyan government has also erected fences which keeps the precious animals/wildlife inside the national park.
The Kenya wildlife service, through its rangers, offer extensive patrols and protection of the country’s wildlife in its wild spaces and as a result hundreds of rangers have lost their lives in the line of duty.
Veterinary Services
This service ensures that healthy breeding populations of species are maintained throughout the country.
Ranks
Training
KWS has a training institute, also referred to as Kenya Wildlife Service Training Institute. The facility located in
Naivasha
Naivasha is a large town in Nakuru County, Kenya, lying by road north west of Nairobi.
Overview
The town has a total population of 198,444 (2019 census).
The main industry is agriculture, especially floriculture.
Naivasha is also a popular t ...
, is a middle-level college registered with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology as a TVET institution. It offers specialized certificate and diploma courses in natural resource management, ecology and
tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism ...
in an effort to enhance conservation, management and sustainability of wildlife
bio-diversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity'') ...
in Kenya and globally.
KWS also has a Law Enforcement Academy is situated in Manyani Area, which caters for all law enforcers' paramilitary training. Manyani area was established in 1990.
Education
KWS run several education centres:
*Nairobi Safari Walk
*Nairobi Education Centre
*Lake Nakuru Education Centre
*Tsavo East Education Centre
*Tsavo West Education Centre
These are located inside National Parks, and run programs to encourage people to care for their environment. It is aimed at local people, particularly school groups, but is open to anyone.
Influential administrators
* Brig. (Rtd.) John M. Waweru, EBS (current Director-General)
* Julius Kipng'etich, former Director General (departed 2012)
* Ronald kipruto koech
* Michael Kipkeu
*
Richard Leakey
Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (19 December 1944 – 2 January 2022) was a Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist and politician. Leakey held a number of official positions in Kenya, mostly in institutions of archaeology and wildlife cons ...
, Chairman of the Board of Trustees
* Kitili Mbathi, Director General (since 2016)
Wildlife
Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted f ...