Immediate former Kenya Wildlife Service chairman Richard Leakey wanted to destroy the agency, Tourism and Wildlife CS Najib Balala has said.
He made the accusations on Tuesday while appearing before the Parliamentary
Committee
on Environment and Natural Resources. The MPs are probing the deaths of 11 rhinos during a botched translocation this month.
Balala, accompanied by senior ministry staff, narrated how Leakey single-handedly chased away and frustrated other board members to exit the team leaving him to unilaterally
run the organisation.
He accused Leakey of changing KWS organisational and operational structure and branding all staff at the service as 'irremediably' corrupt, a move he argued was aimed at weakening the service.
"Leakey created fear that no staff could voice their professional
concern. They will centralise all per diems and operations where everything will be sort from the headquarters with the board's approval."
"They also revoked electronic park entry payment and reverted to the manual system this was part of a system to weaken KWS," Balala said.
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Margaret Mwakima, PS Wildlife who was also a member of the board, told the committee that she was among the people Leakey had chased away and could not set a foot in the board meeting for voicing governance
questions.
Outside the KWS organisational structure, Balala said Leakey created chief operating officers (COO) position in which Nehemiah Rotich was appointed and an advisor position which was held by Mark Jenkins.
"Even though this positions
were under KWS director general, they were not answerable to him. They reported directly to the chair of board and even COO sat in board meetings, whereas
the DG was left only to deal with the security issues of the agency," he said.
"There was clear interference and intimidation of board of trustees by Leakey. He forcefully, threatened and personally intervened in staff issues," Balala added.
The constant
interference with
management of the service and branding of staff as thieves by the chair had demoralised staff thus made them withdraw.
Balala said three years ago, the former KWS chair advised all donor and development community
to pull back their funding.
"During the handover of 26 new vehicles donated by USAID in February, Leakey stood in public and told the US ambassador not to fund KWS as all people were corrupt. I confronted him on why he was condemning
the entire institution
and he said he doesn't
care," he said.
"KWS has good people they were just demoralised for being called thieves. They are the custodian of our heritage and we must support them," he added.
The public spat between Leakey and Balala begun when Leakey dissociated
the board from claims that they had approved translocation
of the said rhinos.
However, in documents tabled before the committee, the board chaired by Leakey had given a conditional approval to the transfer of the rhinos from Nakuru and Nairobi national parks.
"For avoidance of doubt, the former Kenya Wildlife Service board of trustees approved the translocation of 14 black rhinos in a meeting held on October 31, 2017," Balala said.
"This was subject to the management's proposal to allow time for forage to be adequate and appropriate water salinity. The decision to proceed with the planned translocation of rhinos was made on the strength of this conditional approval," Balala said.
Leakey's
board served between April 17, 2015 to April 17, 2018.
Kareke
Mbiuki, the committee chair, said they will summon Leakey to shed more light on the issue.
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