Richard Leakey, a Kenyan conservationist and paleoanthropologist who led efforts against the ivory trade to conserve Africa’s declining elephant population, has passed away on Sunday, December 2, 2022. He had passed at the age of 77 years.
For many of the years of his career, Mr Leakey served various roles, including government or non-government, like as a director of the state-run National Museums of Kenya and twice as a board chairman in Wildlife Service at Kenya.
According to the statement of President Uhuru Kenyatta,” Mr Leakey served our nation with distinction.”
He further added that Besuudes has an outstanding career in the public service. Dr Leakey is honoured for his significant role in Kenya’s vibrant civil society, where he launched and successfully ran numerous institutions.
Mr Leakey was the son of palaeontologists Louis and Mary Leakey, whose research helped prove that human evolution started in Africa.
He was honoured to protect wildlife from poachers and promote anti-ivory initiatives.
According to reports, Mr Leakey had mentored Paula Kahumbu, a wildlife conservationist who runs WildlifeDirect, and many other young Kenyans.
He was a person who was very fearless because he stood by all for the goodness that does not matter whether it was in wildlife conservation, archaeology and paleoanthropological study at museums, or politics,” she continued.
From July 1999 to March 2001, Mr Leakey was served in Kenya as head of civil service, at that time when President Daniel Arap Moi was under pressure from donors to address corruption and other inefficiencies in government.
He was also the co-founder of the Safina Party in 1995.
He was the chairman of the Turkana Basin Institute at Stony Brook University in the United States at the time of his death, which seeks to support palaeontology and archaeology research and education in Northern Kenya.
