The Kenya Wildlife Service is stuck in an administrative paralysis imposed by the current board of trustees chairman, Dr Richard Leakey. The founding director has found it hard to let go of the institution, which he has always controlled by proxy since leaving active management.
He started off with an illustrious tenure in the early 1990s, when he mobilised resources to stamp out rampant poaching. This earned him international acclaim and placed KWS on the global conservation pedestal. He later set up the administration complex at Lang'ata, in place of the dilapidated departmental offices of Wildlife Conservation and Management of the government.
This initial success invited resentment from influential people in the then highly conservative and vengeful regime of President Moi. It culminated in his acrimonious departure in the mid-1990s and the appointment of Dr David Western, who steered the service for the next five years. This short period is the only time Leakey kept off KWS.
As a prominent scholar and conservation idealist, Western exerted individual culture and policies in his administration. He left little room for external influence from Leakey and his conservation cartels, who have strong behind the scenes linkages in the corridors of power.
Leakey finally found his way back as director briefly before joining the civil service as head of public service and secretary to the Cabinet towards the end of the Moi regime.
Since then he has never left KWS alone and exerts heavy overt and covert influence, ensuring his proxies are always at the helm. He was appointed back as the board chairman by the President a while ago, in what must have been a very poor sense of judgment.
Leakey’s influence has frustrated attempts to have a stable head at the institution. Two years ago there was pretension at competitive recruitment, when the CEO position was advertised in the media twice. No candidate was selected, even after several scored more than 60 per cent, and the fact that many candidates were distinguished professionals in the field.
Leakey personally headhunted the immediate former director after a long period of uncertainty, but he did not last long for reasons that were never made public.
KWS now has more than one year without a substantive chief executive, which is not reasonable for such an important public institution.
As if to deliberately perpetuate stalemate, Leakey has instituted operational complexity, with different senior positions reporting to the board instead of a chief executive. Among these senior positions is that of an adviser specifically recruited by Leakey from abroad, rather than allow a director to recruit an adviser of his/her choice.
This board-induced confusion has frustrated operational coordination and team work such that KWS only concentrates on administrative survival than its core mandate of conservation. It was not surprising when the Auditor General pronounced a few months ago that KWS as technically insolvent.
Partners who work with KWS are increasingly agitated by an institution that is unresponsive. Decisions are hardly made or policy issues determined because of bureaucracy and fear of the board. Different departments work at cross purposes due lack of a substantive director.
But why has Leakey been allowed to hold KWS at ransom for so long? There are those who blame him for not being a leader enough to let go when time is up. Or just to give others a chance and let his legacy blossom for better or for worse.
However, the biggest blame is on our national leadership due to its obstinate obsession with Leakey as the symbol of national conservation. The only time the government sought individuation from Leakey was early in the Kibaki administration, when the then Environment minister Dr Newton Kulundu asked Leakey to keep off KWS as “there was a new government that could not give in to his manipulation”.
Unfortunately this was to be short-lived. Our governments, from Moi to the current, are irrationally fixated on Leakey as the fulcrum of Kenya’s conservation and wildlife. This has denied so many able Kenyans an opportunity to lead KWS and generate new conservation ideas and policies.
KWS and Kenya’s wildlife needs to be liberated from Leakey.