World-renowned Kenyan paleontologist and politician
Richard Leakey
died today at the age of 77.
This afternoon I received with deep sadness the news of the passing of Dr. Richard Erskine Frere Leakey, former head of the Kenyan Civil Service, "announced President Uhuru Kenyatta in a statement Sunday night.
Richard Leakey, second of the three children of Louis and Mary Leakey, both paleontologists and archaeologists, became known when he discovered clues that helped prove the evolution of humanity in Africa.
He had not had an official training in archeology but had carried out expeditions in the 1970s
that allowed groundbreaking discoveries about the first hominin fossils.
His most famous discovery dates back to 1984, during a survey in
Lake Tukana,
Kenya, where he had discovered a nearly complete skeleton of Homo erectus, called "the Tukana boy." In 1989, he was requested by then-President Daniel Arap Moi to head the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). There he carried out a vigorous
campaign against the poaching of elephant ivory.
In 1993, his small Cessna plane crashed in Kenya's Rift Valley and he lost both legs in the accident.
Richard Leakey also tried to find a place in politics.
He directed various institutions of civil society and was for a short time at the head of the country's Civil Service.
In 2015, despite his fragile health, he had retaken the leadership of the KWS for a three-year term at the request of the country's president.
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