Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala was summoned by the National Assembly’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee over the death of 10 rhinos at the Tsavo East National Park.
The rhinos have been reported to have died a few days after being translocated from the Nairobi and Nakuru national parks, to Tsavo East National Park following the overcrowding in the two parks, which was hindering breeding.
The newly-established, 100km Tsavo East rhino sanctuary in Kenya’s oldest and largest national park was expected to be more suitable for breeding.
According to the committee’s chairman Kareke Mbiuki while speaking in an interview,the team is more concerned about the deaths, warning they will not spare anyone doing injustice to the country’s tourism sector.
The black rhinos are an endangered species and the loss of the 10 has put Mr Balala on the firing line with Kenyans on social media calling for his resignation.
Mr Mbiuki said Mr Balala will appear before the committee to give the country a comprehensive statements and answers of what happened to the Kenya’s wildlife animals.
He further added saying that , “We saw Mr Balala supervising the translocation of these rhinos, he was part of it. So at the end of the day, he cannot [blame] junior officers.”
Mr Mbiuki said there has been conflicting reports regarding the deaths of the rhinos.
In addition Mr. Mbiuki said, “We are seeing conflicting [reports] from the former board led by Mr Richard Leakey, management of Kenya Wildlife Service and from the CS himself. But Kenyans want to know what happened and put this matter to rest and know who is responsible.”
Mr Balala has so far suspended six senior officers in charge of the relocation and demoted KWS Director-General Julius Kimani.
Those suspended are Dr Samuel Kasiki, who was in charge of biodiversity and research, Mr Francis Gakuya, who headed veterinary and capture services, Dr Isaac Leekolol, who was head of capture services, Tsavo East senior warden Felix Mwangagi, Dr Mohammed Omar, who was in charge of ecological and monitoring services, and Mr Frederick Odock, a senior scientist.
Mr Balala, however, absolved the ministry from blame, arguing that a fully autonomous technical team is responsible for the programme that is funded by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
KWS suspects that the animals died from salt poisoning after drinking highly saline water in their new surroundings.
Reports indicates that the rhinos were also found to have wounds on the legs, neck and lower jaws.
The capture and translocation of 11 of the 14 intended rhinos began on June 26, with the first batch of three (two females and one male) captured at Nairobi National Park being moved successfully to Tsavo and held in Bomas for acclimatization.
According to a KWS staff in Bomas, the rhinos were fed on fresh browse, supplemented with lucerne and sugarcane and given water from newly-sank boreholes.
However, on July 2, one of the male rhinos began to show symptoms of distress: restlessness and drinking excess water.
“Attempts to make it stand were futile as it showed signs of weakness in the fore limbs.
The staff further added saying, “A decision was made to move it out of the Bomas and place it under a nearby shade, where supportive treatment including intravenous fluids was administered.”
The independent inquiry further showed there was negligence at post-translocation, especially while in the Boma.
For example, there was poor coordination and communication among the officers involved in pre-translocation studies (biomass, environmental impact and water quality assessments)