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- Leakey died aged 77.
- He was celebrated for his work to save lots of wildlife from poachers and for main campaigns towards the ivory commerce.
- He co-founded the Safina occasion in 1995.
Richard Leakey, a Kenyan conservationist and paleoanthropologist who spearheaded campaigns towards the ivory commerce to save lots of the dwindling African elephant inhabitants, has died, the Kenyan presidency stated on Sunday. He was 77.
For years Leakey served in numerous roles within the authorities together with as director of the state-run Nationwide Museums of Kenya and twice as board chairman on the Kenya Wildlife Service.
President Uhuru Kenyatta stated Leakey had “served our nation with distinction”.
“In addition to his distinguished profession within the public service, Dr. Leakey is well known for his outstanding position in Kenya’s vibrant civil society the place he based and efficiently ran various establishments.”
Leakey was the son of palaeontologists Louis and Mary Leakey, whose work helped reveal that human evolution started in Africa. He was celebrated for his work to save lots of wildlife from poachers and for main campaigns towards the ivory commerce.
Paula Kahumbu, a wildlife conservationist who heads WildlifeDirect, informed Reuters she had been mentored by Leakey, as had many different younger Kenyans.
READ | Poachers kill 24 rhinos in simply two weeks
“Very brave, he was an individual who stood for integrity whether or not it was in wildlife conservation, whether or not it was associated to archaeological and paleoanthropological analysis at museums or whether or not it was associated to politics,” she stated.
Leakey additionally served Kenya’s head of civil service from July 1999 to March 2001, at a time when then president Daniel Arap Moi was underneath strain from donors to sort out corruption and different inefficiencies in authorities.
He was a co-founder of the Safina Occasion in 1995.
On the time of his loss of life, he was serving as chairman of the Turkana Basin Institute at Stony Brook College in the USA, which works to facilitate analysis and training in palaeontology and archaeology in northern Kenya.
Leakey was additionally a fellow of the UK-based Royal Society and an honorary fellow of the African Academy of Sciences.
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