Renowned Conservationist,Former Head Of Public Service Richard Leakey Is Dead

NAIROBI,Kenya, Jan, 2 – Renowned paleoanthropologist and conservationist Richard E. Leakey is dead.

The conservationist’s passing was made public by president Uhuru Kenyatta in a statement Sunday evening.

President Kenyatta described Leakey who was served as the Head of the Public Service, Director of the National Museums of Kenya and Chairman of the Kenya Wildlife Service Board of Directors at various points in his life as a man who served his country with distinction in every role he assumed.

“Besides his distinguished career in the public service, Dr Leakey is celebrated for his prominent role in Kenya’s vibrant civil society where he founded and successfully ran a number of institutions among them the conservation organization WildlifeDirect,” said Kenyatta who further said that,”On behalf of the people of Kenya, my family and on my own behalf, I send heartfelt condolences and sympathies to the family, friends and associates of Dr. Richard Leakey during this difficult period of mourning,”

Leakey’s Career

Leakey devoted the majority of his life to research on human origins, conservation of wildlife and public service. Soon after Kenya’s independence, Leakey was appointed as the first Director of Kenya’s National Museums. 

In 1989 he became Director of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Department, which became known as the Kenya Wildlife Service. 

As first chairman of Kenya Wildlife Service, he re-organized the country’s national park systems and dramatically led efforts to reduce poaching levels. He later served as a Member of Parliament in Kenya and then Head of the Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet.

His extensive fossil finds critical to understanding human evolution saw him featured in the cover of Time magazine in 1977. His illustrious career saw him make several discoveries in northern Kenya into the 1980s  most notably in 1984 when he alongside others recovered the nearly complete 1.6-million-year-old skeleton of a Homo erectus youth – a groundbreaking contribution to the study of evolutionary biology. 

In 1989, while serving as Chairman and Director of Kenya Wildlife Service, Leakey in an  international event led by the late president Daniel Moi, oversaw the burning of at least 12 tons of ivory, worth an estimated $3 million dollars, (Sh 339 million) making a profound statement against the ivory trade.

Additional Reporting Stony Brook University.