KENYA: Taiwanese Tourist Killed By Deadly Hippo At Lake Naivasha Shores

Kenya Wildlife Service officers have neutralised a hippopotamus that attacked and killed a tourist from Taiwan who was taking photographs on the shore of Lake Naivasha.

The man was pronounced dead on arrival at the Naivasha District Hospital, while another tourist survived the attack on Saturday evening, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said on Sunday.

We are tracking the hippo, the service said on Twitter on Sunday.

Hell’s Gate Park warden Nelson Cheruiyot confirmed the tracking and killing of the deadly hippo.

KWS identified the dead man as Chang Ming Chuang, 66, and the survivor as Wu Peng Te, 62, and said they were from China but Taiwan’s foreign ministry said the two were from the self-ruled island.

Several people have questioned the rationale of killing the hippo, which they say was provoked in its natural habitat.

The attacks brought to six the number of people who have been attacked and killed by hippos in Naivasha since the year began.

The head of a boat owners’ association in Navaisha as saying higher than normal water levels were causing hippos to wander from the lake on to nearby farms and hotel properties searching for pasture.

Naivasha is a city on the lake 90 km northwest of the capital, Nairobi.

After a severe drought last year, Kenya had several months of heavy rain this year that caused serious flooding, including around Lake Naivasha.


Tourism Observer

KENYA: Missing Flysax Plane Not Yet Recovered. Two Female Pilots Among Missing

It is more than 20 hours since the light aircraft operated by FlySax went missing on Tuesday evening as it headed to Jomo Kenyatta airport in the capital Nairobi.

Search for the plane, its crew and passengers is still ongoing.

The FlySax operated Cesna C208 craft, registration number 5Y-CAC, took off from Kitale airstrip in Trans-Nzoia County at 4.05pm on Tuesday.

The plane had eight passengers and two crew members on board.

The pilot and co-pilot were both women.

The light craft was expected to fly for an hour and 15 minutes and touch down at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi at 5.20pm.

The plane was last seen on the JKIA radar at 17.20pm, the time it was supposed to land , according to Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCCA) and FlySax.

It was flying at 11,000 feet above sea level, 40 nautical miles from Nairobi.

Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS), which is part of the search and rescue team, said there were strong indications that the plane went down in the Aberdares, Nyandarua County.

The condition of the eight passengers and crew is not yet known.

Search and rescue teams, whose efforts have been hampered by bad weather in the Aberdares, are expected to give information once they reach the scene of the crash.

Teams from KCAA, Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) and the Air Accident Investigation Division of Kenya (AAID) were dispatched immediately the plane was reported missing.

Search in the Aberdares went into Tuesday night and was called off due to darkness and bad weather in the dense forest.

Hunt for the plane has resumed but aerial search is still hampered by fog.

There are conflicting reports on the flight from the operator, FlySax, and the regulator, KCAA.

Kenya Civil Aviation Authority says the Cesna C208 craft was last seen on its radar at JKIA at 2.02pm on Tuesday, even before the plane took off from the Kitale airstrip at 4.05pm.

But FlySax, in its statement, says the plane was last seen on the radar at 5.20pm, the time it was supposed to touch down at JKIA.

The other puzzle is the plane's flight path and how it found itself in the Aberdare region, which is considered dangerous.

Sources, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the gravity of the matter, say that the plane was to land at Wilson Airport but it was diverted to JKIA for reasons we are yet to establish.

The plane was to hit the runway at JKIA through Utawala direction, which, according to other pilots the Nation spoke to, forced it to take the Kinangop route.

The Kinangop route is characterised by bad storms.

Meanwhile two female pilots are among those missing after their plane is believed to have crashed within Aberdare forest, Nyandarua County.

They include the pilot captain Barbra Wangeci Kamau and her First Officer Jean Mureithi.

The passengers missing include:

- Mr Ahmed Ali Abdi

- Mr Karaba Sailah Waweru Muiga

- Mr Khetia Kishani

- Mr Matakasakarai Thamani

- Mr Matakatekei Paula

- Mr George Ngugi Kinyua

- Mr Pinuertorn Ronald

- Mr Robinson Wafula.

They were on board the plane that went missing as it prepared to land at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Tuesday evening.

The pilot and her First Officer are said to be experienced. The plane had made trips to Homa Bay and Maasai Mara on Tuesday and was up to date in terms of service.

Frustrated relatives and friends of those missing joined the search for their loved ones within Aberdare forest in Njambini area, Nyandarua County.

Some of the relatives drove from Kitale to the site for the search even as teams using a chopper for the mission cited bad weather as the reason for the delays in the job.

The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority had on Tuesday night announced it stopped the search due to bad weather, which minimized chances of survival for those missing.

Mobile phone signals from the Fly540 plane that went missing Tuesday evening was located in Kinangop area.

Rescue teams from police, Kenya Wildlife Service and responders concentrated the area stretching to Aberdares forest after signals showed it could be there.

There was no clear indication if there are survivors. The CS208 plane, registration number 5Y-CAC, was flying from a Kitale airstrip in Trans-Nzoia County to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport when it lost contact with control tower at 5pm.

The plane was about 60 kilometres from its destination and the two female pilots on board had contacted the tower when the contact went missing. It is believed they flew into a bad storm.

According to officials, the plane operated by East Africa Safari Air Express, a subsidiary of Fly540 left Kitale shortly after 4pm with eight passengers and two crew members on board and was to land at about 5 pm.

The two pilots were redirected to JKIA and were to land through Utawala direction. This, according to officials, forced the pilots to take the Kinangop route, which is considered dangerous because of the weather.

The airline said the plane was missing and that efforts by Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and Air Accident Investigation Division of Kenya to locate it were ongoing.

Others in the search mission included Kenya Red Cross, National Disaster Management Unit and Kenya Forest Service.

At present, the East Africa Safari Air Express has no knowledge of the location or condition of the aircraft or its occupants, the airline said in the statement on Tuesday night.

It urged relatives and next of kin to convene at Weston Hotel for more information and those able to call crisis hotline number +254 706 303 305. Some of the relatives visited the hotel.

Three Kenya Red Cross staff are fighting for their lives in hospital after their vehicle crashed as they headed to Njambini area in Kinangop to help with the search of the missing FlySax plane.

The three patients in critical conditions at the Nakuru General Hospital were with eight others when their vehicle collided head-on with a lorry at Kariamu area near Ol Kalou town.

The hospital’s medical superintendent Samuel Mwaura on Wednesday told the Nation that one of the patients suffered spinal cord injuries and requires specialised care.

Another staff sustained a fractured leg while the other survived the morning crash serious head injures.

The other eight patients suffered soft-tissue injuries and were treated at the JM Memorial Hospital.

The Red Cross workers were headed to Njambini to join a government multi-agency team that has been deployed to locate the plane.

Teams conducting the search are drawn from the Kenya Air Force, Civil Aviation Authority, Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) and the Air Accident Investigation Division of Kenya (AAID).

The search, which was called off on Tuesday night, was yet to resume proper by Wednesday noon due to bad weather in Kinangop.

The multi-agency team was holed up in a strategic meeting at Njabini deputy county commissioner’s office.

The Nation counted tens of police officers and vehicles waiting for the cloudy and foggy weather to clear

A section of the search and rescue team was waiting to be airlifted from Njambini playground to the search zone.

The Cesna C208 craft, registration number 5Y-CAC, was flying from a Kitale airstrip in Trans-Nzoia County when it lost contact with control tower at 5pm Tuesday in the Aberdares.

The missing 12-passenger plane is operated by East Africa Safari Air Express, a subsidiary of Fly540.

Phone signals from the FlySax plane that went missing on Tuesday evening have been located in the Aberdares in Nyandarua County.

Kenya Wildlife Services Assistant Director in charge of Mountain Areas Simon Gitau on Wednesday said that they would concentrate their search in the Kinangop, where the signals were located.

Last signals, he said, were picked around Njambini area.

We are not sure how long the search is likely to take but Njambini remains an area of interest, he said.

Mr Gitau said they resumed the search, which was called off on Tuesday night, at 4am but aerial hunt for the craft is still hampered by bad weather.

Enough rescue teams, Mr Gitau said , have been mobilised but bad weather is delaying the search.

By 7am, a section of the search and rescue team was waiting to be airlifted from Njambini playground to the search zone.

A team from Kenya Red Cross was also heading to Njambini to join the operation.

In Kinangop, a security team is holed up in a meeting, with Nyandarua County Commissioner Boaz Cherutich and his team on their way to Njambini to join the search team.

The Cesna C208 craft, registration number 5Y-CAC, was flying from a Kitale airstrip in Trans-Nzoia County when it lost contact with control tower at 5pm Tuesday in the Aberdares.

The plane was some 60 kilometres from its destination, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the capital Nairobi.

The plane left Kitale shortly after 4pm with eight passengers and two crew members on board and was expected in Nairobi about an hour later.

The missing 12-passenger plane is operated by East Africa Safari Air Express, a subsidiary of Fly540.

A statement from the airline acknowledged its aircraft was indeed missing but combined efforts of KCAA, Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) and the Air Accident Investigation Division of Kenya (AAID), had been going on to locate it.

At present, the East Africa Safari Air Express has no knowledge of the location or condition of the aircraft or its occupants, the airline said in the statement.

Relatives and next of kin of the passengers and crew can convene at Weston Hotel for more information.

Ms Jane Wangeci, a resident, said the response was too slow, and manual methods should have been mobilised to locate the craft.

We have been in the forest before. They should mobilise residents to walk in the forest instead of these delays, she said.

The relatives of the victims are waiting and must be psychologically tortured.

Mr Job Wambugu, a resident, said the area experienced extreme weather at the time the plane disappeared.

It was raining with a heavy mist by the time we left the offices on Tuesday evening, he said.

By noon, Senior County Security officers, led by County Commissioner Boaz Cherutich, were still holed up in a meeting at Njabini deputy county commissioner's office.

Also present in the meeting was Mr Pius Masai, the National Disaster Management Unity deputy director.

A source at the venue told the Nation that the meeting started at around 6am, while a rescue chopper from the Kenya Wildlife Service arrived shortly before 8am.

There is a heavy presence of armed police officers in Njambini, with four-wheel vehicles waiting to be sent to the forest.

The rescue team plans to use three entrances into the dense Aberdare Forest— Mutubio, Githobokonyi and Kiburu.

Mr Cherutich said a command centre will be erected at Njabini Boys High School, about two kilometers from the deputy commissioner’s office.

KWS assistant director in charge of mountain areas Simon Gitau attributed the delays to bad weather.

Mr Gitau said the last signals were located around Njabini area, and that is where the search teams will concentrate their efforts once the skies clear.


Tourism Observer

KENYA: Kenya Wildlife Service Using Mobile Phone Compliant Camera Traps To Stop Poaching

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has adopted the use of innovative mobile phone compliant camera traps to facilitate effective monitoring and tracking of park animals.

The technology now being piloted at the Tsavo National park, will make it possible for the institution to get real-time images of wildlife living in secluded and hard to reach habitats.

Camera traps are special types of cameras used for animal conservation purposes. They are equipped with motion sensors aimed at capturing moving creatures.

These traps are usually mounted in strategic areas of parks such as feeding points and water bodies where they constantly capture high resolution images of wild animals residing in forested ecosystems or bushy areas that are difficult to access.

This allows KWS officials to have eyes on the ground which facilitate the identification of conservation threats such as poaching.

They also help with the discovery of new animals like the giant elephant shrew species discovered in the Boni-Dodori forest in 2010. Dr Shadrack Ngene, assistant director of biodiversity research and monitoring division at KWS, noted that previous camera traps were fitted with memory cards that had to be physically removed and inserted into a computer before security teams or researchers could view captured images.

But the new technology, he said, makes it possible for the camera traps to capture images and transmit real-time pictures electronically to smartphones of park officials.

Aside from saving time, the instant transmission of images will enable wildlife officials to identify potential threats fast thus giving them ample time to act accordingly.

Dr Ngene noted that animals living in dense forests or bushy areas rarely come out in the open.

So the camera traps help us to identify these animals and effectively monitor their activities. If you don’t know them, then you can’t protect them.

Tour companies and agencies also rely on this information to develop targeted adverts aimed at boosting local and international tourism.
Visitors need to know types of animals found in our different parks before they decide where to go.

Dr Ngene stated that the new camera traps will work hand-in-hand with hi-tech satellite collars that enable rangers to easily track locations of animals found in less hilly, open fields and more visible areas such as elephants, lions, cheetahs, leopards, buffaloes, antelopes and wildebeest.

Once these animals are fitted with the collars, game rangers are able to trace their movements and whereabouts day and night by monitoring their GPS co-ordinates from computer screens at KWS offices.

If we notice that certain animals have remained static for a long time, we normally send our patrol teams on the ground to physically locate the animals using hand-held transmitters and find out if there’s a problem.

Ngene states that detailed records of movement patterns collected through the satellite collars have enabled KWS to map key wildlife corridors which facilitate proper planning of eco-friendly infrastructural development.

This information was useful in the construction of the standard gauge railway as we wanted it to pass in areas far from wildlife so as to minimise disturbance to animals.

The mapped routes have also made it possible for KWS to put in place measures aimed at curbing human-wildlife conflicts in movement corridors close to where people live.

We usually have our officials stationed in such areas and especially at night to prevent wild animals from crossing over to people’s farms.

Dr Ngene stated that night patrols have been enhanced by night vision goggles resembling binoculars that enable KWS rangers to see in the dark through the use of infrared technology. They can zoom in or out depending on what they are looking for.

We introduced this at the height of poaching in the country and it helped bring the numbers down as we could see these poachers even in the dark.



Tourism Observer

KENYA: Kenya Wildlife Service Decreases Entry Fees To Parks And Reserves

Following a review of parks and reserves entry fees, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has decreased its rates from November 1.

Entry fees to KWS managed National Parks and Reserves have been capped at $60 (€54) for adult non-residents.

Although there are different fees for each park, none will be above $60. Entrance to premium Parks will be charged at $60, wilderness parks $52, Urban Safaris $43, Sanctuaries $22, Marine parks $17 and scenic or special interest rates at $26 and $22.

The decision follows the Kenyan government’s move to exempt entry fees to national parks and reserves from Value Added Tax (VAT).

According to KWS the conservation fees paid for parks entry goes towards the protection of the Kenya’s heritage.
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KENYA: Dr. Paula Kahumbu, Kenya’s ‘Mama Ndovu’ Takes Stock Of Anti Poaching

Since 2013, according to the latest estimates, elephant deaths from poaching in Kenya are down by 80% and deaths of rhinos by 90%. This is a success story that deserves to be more widely known.

Kenya was traditionally in the forefront of wildlife conservation in Africa. However, in 2008 the sale of ivory from four southern African countries to China and Japan triggered an explosive demand and poaching erupted across the continent.

By 2012, the situation was almost out of control in Kenya due to corruption, ignorance, poor laws, and an inadequate anti-poaching response. Government agencies such as the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) were in denial.

I was among the many conservationists who felt angry and frustrated at the government’s refusal to respond to our concerns. One of our colleagues was arrested and others went into hiding for fear of being deported for exposing how serious the poaching crisis was.

The turning point came in February 2013 when the government finally agreed to call a special session of the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) to discuss wildlife conservation. This landmark meeting was attended by many dozens of representatives of ministries, law enforcement agencies, the private sector, academia and civil society.

It was a tough-talking meeting. We challenged the government’s complacent view of the situation and questioned the capacity and commitment of KWS and border agencies to control poaching and trafficking.

Leading Kenyan conservationists, including Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Agatha Juma and Jake Grieves Cook, warned that thousands of elephants were being killed each year and of the threat this posed to tourism and the economy

Representatives of the Ministry of Environment and Wildlife and KWS denied the situation was a crisis; however, they did ask the government for support to tackle the growing poaching problem.

Richard Leakey and I spoke for WildlifeDirect and we presented a 14 point plan of action that had been developed with barrister Shamini Jayanathan. After intensive discussions the NESC adopted most of our recommendations and instructed authorities to urgently adopt a ‘whole government’ response to the crisis.

The NESC meeting was the first major effort of the Hands Off Our Elephants campaign, which was officially launched five months later. Our aims were simple: to bring all sectors of society on board in order to defeat the poachers and traffickers, safeguard elephant populations, and turn Kenya into model for successful wildlife conservation.

Our initiative was coolly received in some quarters. Government officials accused us of being unpatriotic by damaging Kenya’s reputation abroad. Some fellow conservationists said we were being too ambitious.

We knew it would be difficult but we were confident that our aims were achievable, for three reasons:

Kenya has a vibrant civil society and a free press, so we would have the means to get our message across.
We had support in high places. The new President Uhuru Kenyatta, who took up office in April 2013, was known to be sympathetic to wildlife conservation. His wife, Margaret Kenyatta joined the campaign from the outset as its patron.
Kenya had done it before, in the 1990s, when KWS routed the poachers under the leadership of Richard Leakey, and President Arap Moi transformed global attitudes towards ivory by burning Kenya’s ivory stockpile.

Seven strategies for success

Looking back at what Hands Off Our Elephants has achieved so far, in an informal ‘mid-term evaluation’, I can identify seven things that have worked:

1. An evidence based approach. In making our case, we knew it would be not enough to rely on hearsay. We presented the results of 5 years of courtroom monitoring to prove that those arrested for wildlife crimes were being let off scot free or at most with derisory fines. We demanded – and got – an audit of Kenya’s ivory stockpile, overseen by independent observers.

2. Mobilizing public support. We took our campaign into government offices and corporate board rooms, onto the streets and into schools and universities, and into the villages in areas that have elephants. We spoke to young people in language they would understand, with the support of pop stars, comic book authors, and sports personalities. In alliance with private sector, we took the message into supermarkets and onto airplanes.

This broad-based alliance has succeeded in generating a level of popular support for wildlife conservation never before witnessed in Kenya, or any other elephant range state.

3. Mainstream media coverage. Our campaign transformed poaching from a wildlife conservation issue to headline news. Conservationists gave extensive TV interviews in prime-time current affairs slots, with the focus squarely on political, juridical and institutional capacity issues.

If you are reading this in Europe or North America, you might like to ask yourself when wildlife conservation was last given this treatment by media in your own country.

4. Political will. We were fortunate in this respect. In his inaugural address President Kenyatta signalled his intentions by referring to poaching as ‘economic sabotage’, and followed this up with a series of key measures to strengthen the law and the judiciary.

The First Lady, Her Excellency Margaret Kenyatta, made it clear that she intended to take an even more proactive role. She agreed to be Patron of Hands Off Our Elephants and has been a central figure in the campaign ever since.

Cabinet Secretary Judi Wakhungu of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources has been behind us all the way, as have US and British ambassadors Bob Godec and Christian Turner. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has convened meetings to create awareness of the problem amongst all Kenya-based diplomats.

5. Boots on the ground. One of President Kenyatta’s first acts was to announce additional funds to finance anti-poaching activities, allowing the recruitment of 577 more rangers. He created a specialised multi-agency anti-poaching unit and brought all law enforcement agencies together to tackle the ivory trafficking problem in a coordinated way.

As a result, poachers are more likely to be caught than ever before. But we knew that this would have no deterrent effect unless getting arrested led to some serious consequences. That’s why the next two success factors were key.

6. Strengthening the law. Wildlife law before 2013 treated poaching as a petty offence. Maximum penalties were derisory compared to the vast profits that were being made by organised wildlife crime. We lobbied with many other NGOs and citizen groups for a new Wildlife Act.

The new act finally came into force in January 2104, making poaching and ivory trafficking a serious crime in Kenya, on a par with gun running and drug trafficking. Penalties for wildlife crime in Kenya are now the harshest in the world, including life imprisonment in some cases.

7. Reforms to the criminal justice system. Our courtroom monitoring program had exposed major challenges in record keeping, evidence collection, and prosecutions. The handling of wildlife trials has been transformed through the creation of a specialised wildlife crime prosecution unit under the office of the Public Prosecutor, combined with new operating procedures and extensive training programmes for legal staff.

Being arrested for poaching or ivory trafficking in Kenya has become a big deal.

Measures of success

Summarising the results of my mid-term evaluation: Kenya has managed to turn around the poaching crisis in a remarkably short time. This is in large part thanks to the support of NGOs – large and small – working with the private sector, government, and the donor community. All Kenyans can be proud of this impressive achievement.

Several poachers have gone to jail for life, and many have been fined hundreds of thousands of US Dollars. Jailing of convicted poachers is up from 4 to 11%. Suspected traffickers have had their assets seized and bank accounts frozen, as the law on proceeds of organized crime can now be applied to wildlife crimes.

Poachers are giving up the trade because of the high likelihood of arrest, and the knowledge that it will lead to prosecution and a jail sentence. This is reflected in the dramatic decline in poaching: the ‘bottom line’ that is the most important indicator of the success of our campaign.

Perhaps most importantly, for the first time in Kenya’s its history, Kenya is prosecuting major ivory traffickers. One of the most notorious suspected traffickers, Feisal Mohamed Ali, was arrested with the support of Interpol following the seizure of huge haul of ivory in Mombasa. He has remained behind bars to face trial since December 2014.

The continuing threat

While Kenya can celebrate success today, we cannot be complacent. Just next door in Tanzania thousands of elephants are being gunned down annually and their population has been reduced by over 60 percent in just 5 years. Meanwhile in South Africa, over a thousand rhinos are murdered for their horns each year.

These killing fields will expand back into Kenya without concerted international efforts to reduce demand for ivory and rhino horn.

In Kenya, several factors threaten the sustainability of our successes. By far the most serious of these is the pervasive corruption that disfigures Kenyan society. It seems that corruption is rarely out of the news these days: it threatens the democracy that is bedrock of all our achievements so far.

The power of corrupt money is undoubtedly the reason why, in contrast to the harsh sentences imposed on poachers – the small fry – and despite the arrest of Feisal Mohamed Ali, no trafficker has yet been convicted and sent to jail under the new law.

The way forward

So what comes next? Hands Off Our Elephants will continue to expand its operations in Kenya while coordinating with partners across Africa to replicate our efforts in neighbouring countries. The campaign will focus on key new demands, including:

Corruption should be included among the named charges for wildlife offenders and in cases where police and customs officers, and other government officials are involved.
Existing high level cases should be brought to a rapid conclusion. Every delay increases the opportunities for evidence to be ‘lost’ and witnesses to ‘disappear’.
The must be an end the practice of deporting foreign nationals arrested for ivory trafficking. They should be tried in Kenyan courts. Traffickers should know that if they are caught with ivory at a Kenyan port or airport they can expect to spend the rest of their lives in a Kenya jail.
Visitors to Kenya and those in transit must be made aware of the new law and the penalties for poaching in order to reduce demand.
Kenya’s must destroy its entire ivory stockpile as a signal to the world that no Kenyan ivory will ever again enter into legal or illegal markets.

Above all, there is a need to strengthen accountability by giving civil society a permanent role in monitoring living and dead animals, seizures of illegal wildlife products, and the government’s response to wildlife crime.

The good news is that the foundations for this have been laid by the campaign itself, which has given rise to unprecedented levels of collaboration between government and civil society.

In recognition of the key importance of civil society organisations for wildlife conservation, NGOs have recently come together to form the “Conservation Alliance of Kenya”, a permanent stakeholder forum which will advise government on environmental issues. One of the key thematic groups that has been set up will address wildlife crime.

Thus democracy is not only the rock on which we build our campaigns. The campaigns themselves are an integral part of wider efforts to strengthen democracy.

Our African-led initiative to save elephants and wildlife is driven by a wider vision of an inclusive, prosperous African future; an Africa with effective governance and a vibrant civil society, and proud of its rich natural and cultural heritage.

KENYA: Richard Leakey

Richard Leakey

Richard Erskine Frere Leakey, second son of Louis and Mary, was born on December 19, 1944. He participated in his parent’s field expeditions from an early age and was therefore well-placed to inherit their legacy. His efforts withpaleoanthropology involved not only field research and discoveries but also many years serving as the director of the National Museums of Kenya (NMK). Work at Koobi Fora began after a chance landing in the area led Richard to believe that the area held a wealth of fossil deposits. Together with a team from the NMK, Richard led the first expedition to Koobi Fora in 1968. Between 1968 and 1989 he coordinated the NMK field expeditions to the eastern and western shores of Lake Turkana. With the team of talented and experienced fossil hunters led by Mr. Kamoya Kimeu, many important finds were made, including early stone age tools dating to around 1.9 million years old, evidence of early members of the genus Homo, including skulls of Homo habilis and Homo erectus, and remains of robust australopithecines A. boisei and A.aethiopicus. The extraordinary discovery of the nearly complete 1.6 million year old skeleton of the “Nariokotome Boy” (or “Turkana Boy”), a Homo erectus youth, was undoubtedly the most important.

After Dr. Leakey was appointed the head of the Kenya Wildlife Services KWS in 1989, he was no longer able to continue with fieldwork, though he remains interested in paleoanthropology. As head of the KWS, Richard successfully combated elephant and rhino poaching and oversaw a reorganization of Kenya’s troubled national park system. In 1993, he lost both legs below the knee when the plane he was flying crashed. The following year, political opposition caused him to leave the KWS and he became more involved in Kenyan politics, serving as Secretary General of Kenyan opposition party Safina. In December 1997, he was elected to an opposition seat in the Kenyan parliament.

Dr. Leakey’s political career culminated in 1999 When then-president Moi appointed him head of Kenya’s Civil Service and of a so-called “Dream Team” of technocrats assembled from various fields and backgrounds to tackle management, corruption, and reorganization issues within the Kenyan government. He stepped down from this position in 2001, announcing at that time that he was retiring from politics.

Although subjected to political impasses, intimidation and physical violence, he continues to fight for political justice in Kenya. Dr. Richard Leakey continues to lecture on environmental themes and is currently involved in grassroots wildlife conservation projects. In his spare time he enjoys growing grapes and producing wine on his farm near Nairobi.

Plane crash
In 1993, a small propeller-driven plane piloted by Richard Leakey crashed, crushing his lower legs, both of which were later amputated. Sabotage was suspected but never proved. While in the hospital, Leakey told President Moi, a religious man, not to pray for him, but act on matters pending for the Kenya Wildlife Service. In a few months Richard Leakey was walking again on artificial limbs. Around this time the Kenyan government announced that a secret probe had found evidence of corruption and mismanagement in the Kenya Wildlife Service. An annoyed Leakey resigned publicly in a press conference in January 1994. He was replaced by David Western as the head of the Kenya Wildlife Service.

Richard Leakey wrote about his experiences at the Kenya Wildlife Service in his book Wildlife Wars: My Fight to Save Africa's Natural Treasures (2001).

Politics
In May 1995 Richard Leakey joined some Kenyan intellectuals in launching a new political party – the Safina Party, which in Swahili means "Noah's Ark". "If KANU and Mr. Moi will do something about the deterioration of public life, corruption and mismanagement, I'd be happy to fight alongside them. If they won't, I want somebody else to do it," announced Richard Leakey.The Safina party was routinely harassed and even its application to become an official political party was not approved until 1997.

In 1999, Moi had to appoint Richard Leakey as Cabinet Secretary and overall head of the civil service at the insistence of international donor institutions as a pre-condition for the resumption of donor funds. Leakey's second stint in the civil service lasted until 2001 when he was forced to resign again.

Later activities
Leakey joined the Department of Anthropology faculty at Stony Brook University, New York in 2002. He is currently a professor of anthropology at Stony Brook, where he is Chair of the Turkana Basin Institute.

In 2004, Leakey founded and chaired WildlifeDirect, a Kenya-based charitable organization. The charity was established to provide support to conservationists in Africa directly on the ground via the use of blogs. This enables individuals anywhere to play a direct and interactive role in the survival of some of the world's most precious species. The organisation played a significant role in the saving of Congo's mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park in January 2007 after a rebel uprising threatened to eliminate the highly vulnerable population.

In April 2007 he was appointed interim chairman of Transparency International Kenya branch. The same year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society

In June 2013, Leakey was awarded the Isaac Asimov Science Award from the American Humanist Association.