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The world-renowned archaeologist Richard Leakey, a well-known archaeologist in Kenya, has died at the age of 77, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced.
Leakey, whose findings helped to confirm the evolution of Africans, remained active until his 70’s despite having skin, kidney, and liver cancer.
“I am deeply saddened by the tragic news of the death of Dr Richard Erskine Frere Leakey,” Kenyatta said in a statement.
Born on December 19, 1944, Leakey was sent to palaeoanthropology – studying the history of mankind – as the son of Louis and Mary Leakey, perhaps the world’s most famous geneticist.
Initially, Leakey tried his hand at guiding the safari, but things changed when he at the age of 23 won a scholarship from the National Geographic Society to dig along the northern Kenyan coast of Lake Turkana, despite having no archeological studies.
In the 1970s, he led expeditions that revived the scientific understanding of human evolution and discovered the skulls of Homo habilis, 1.9 million years old, in 1972 and Homo erectus, 1.6 million years old, in 1975.
Time magazine cover followed by Leakey mocking Homo habilis under the title: How Man Became Man. Then in 1981, his popularity grew when he directed, The Making of Mankind, a seven-part BBC radio program.
Yet the best known archeology was still to come: the discovery of the mysterious bones of the Homo erectus skeleton in one of his 1984 studies, named after the Turkana Boy.
Fight off killer ivory
When the killing of African elephants reached its zenith in the late 1980’s, motivated by the unsatisfactory quest for ivory, Leakey appeared to be one of the world’s leading vocalists against the then-recognized ivory trade.
President Daniel arap Moi in 1989 appointed Leakey to head the National Wildlife Service, soon to be known as the Kenya Wildlife Service, or KWS.
That same year, he started a remarkable career in burning ivory, burning 12 tons of ivory and proving the elephants worthless.
He also proved himself courageous, apologetic, and decisively put an end to the slaughter of poachers without permission.
In 1993, his small Cessna plane crashed in the Rift Valley where he made a name for himself. He survived but lost both his legs.
“At that time, I was constantly threatened and guarded by armed guards. But I decided not to become an actor and said: ‘They wanted to kill me.’ I decided to move on with my life, “he told the Financial Times.
Leakey was forced to leave KWS a year later and began his third career as an opposition politician, joining forces with Moi’s corrupt government.
His political career did not go well, however, and in 1998 when he returned, he was appointed by Moi to lead Kenya’s government affairs, appointing him to oversee the fight against corruption. However, the project was impossible, and he quit after only two years.
In 2015, when another elephant poaching crisis erupted in Africa, President Kenyatta called on Leakey to take over the leadership of KWS, this time as chair of the organization, a position he has held for three years.
Speaking softly and seemingly insignificantly, Leakey stubbornly refused to succumb to the disease.
“Richard was a close friend and a real loyal Kenyan. Rest in Peace,” Paula Kahumbu, executive of Wildlife Direct, a Leakey-based environmental conservation group, wrote on Twitter.
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