Kenyan Wildlife Service receives 27 Landcruisers

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The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has donated 26 Toyota Landcruiser vehicles to boost the anti-poaching operations of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

The vehicles were handed over to Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Tourism Najib Balala, at a ceremony in Nairobi, by US ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec.

The ambassador said the vehicles would help KWS staff intensify counter-poaching operations while fighting the cancer of corruption which undermines the fight against wildlife crimes.
“Corruption has been a cancer, and it needs to be addressed because it undermines service delivery and the future,” Godec said.

Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Tourism Najib Balala welcomed the donation, saying it came as the KWS was working under the limitations of a severely reduced anti-poaching budget.

He said despite a 80% decline in the poaching of elephants and rhinos in the past two years, the animals remained under threat from shrinking wildlife habitat as a result of human encroachment.

Another four vehicles will be acquired in the future.