Newly appointed KWS board chair Koipaton assumes office

The troubled Kenya Wildlife Service has officially received Walter Koipaton as its chair of the board.

On Thursday, KWS acting Director General Erustus Kanga welcomed Koipaton, at KWS HQs.

The Chair board held meetings with the senior management and staff before presiding over a tree-planting exercise.

Koipaton thanked President William Ruto for his appointment and affirmed his commitment to support the Service to achieve its mandate as set out in the Wildlife and Conservation Management Act 2013.

KWS has not been with the board chair since John Waithaka resigned in a huff citing frustrations in 2020.

With the absence of the substantive chair, Betty Maitoyo has been acting.

Waithaka is said to have been irked by extreme interference by the Ministry of Tourism and failure by the KWS management to implement board decisions.

The board has raised several issues dogging the institution, including the parastatal being run by the ministry as a department, the alarming loss of wildlife without much being done, baseless disciplinary actions taken against staff and the loss of 76 square kilometres of Chyulu Hills National Park last year though a court ruling.

Other complaints are the appointment of the director general in March 2019, KWS having over 1,300 temporary staff working in sensitive areas for years, parks that exist on paper without staff or minimum facilities, lack of a strategic plan, the outdated policy of 1975 and illegal encroachment of the Nairobi National Park.

In December last year, KWS Director General, Brig. (Rtd) John Waweru was sent on compulsory leave