He campaigned against the ivory trade to save the dwindling African elephant population
The Kenyan president said on Sunday that Richard Leakey, a Kenyan conservationist and paleontologist who campaigned against the ivory trade to save dwindling African elephant populations, has died. He was 77 years old.
Over the years, Mr Leakey served in various roles in the government, including as director of the state-run National Museum of Kenya and twice as board chairman at the Kenya Wildlife Service.
President Uhuru Kenyatta said Mr Leakey did “a special service to our country”.
“In addition to his distinguished career in 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.”
Mr Leakey was the son of paleontologists Louis and Mary Leakey, whose work helped demonstrate that human evolution began in Africa. He was celebrated for his work in protecting wildlife from poachers and for pioneering campaigns against the ivory trade.
Paula Kahumbu, chief wildlife conservationist at Wildlife Direct, told Reuters, He was mentored by Mr Leakey, as were many other young Kenyans.
“Very courageous, he was a man who stood for integrity, whether it was in wildlife conservation, whether it was related to archaeological and fossil research in museums or whether it was related to politics,” she said.
Mr Leakey also served as Kenya’s civil service chief from July 1999 to March 2001, at a time when then-President Daniel Arap Moi was under pressure from donors to tackle corruption and other inefficiencies in the government.
He was the co-founder of the Safina Party in 1995.
At the time of his death, he served as President of the Turkana Basin Institute at Stony Brook University in the United States, which works to facilitate research and education in archeology and archeology in northern Kenya.
Mr Leakey was also a Fellow of the Royal Society in the UK and an Honorary Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences.
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