THE MOUNTAIN REGION VETERINARY CLINIC; A COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE KENYA WILDLIFE SERVICE (KWS) AND LEWA WILDLIFE CONSERVANCY (LWC)

Preamble

Kenya Wildlife Service is a Government agency charged with the national responsibility of protection and conservation of wildlife species in Kenya. To achieve this goal it has various divisions. The main core divisions include; Security, Biodiversity, Research and Monitoring, and Wildlife and Community Service.

The Veterinary department of Kenya Wildlife Service falls under the Biodiversity, Research and Monitoring Division and is responsible for the sustenance of viably healthy and breeding wildlife populations.

The LWC on the other hand is a non- profit making organization based on 62,000 acres of savannah, wetland and community development to conserve endangered wildlife species, operating in Isiolo district, Kenya.

The two organisations compliment each other in their conservation efforts.

The Project
In line with the overall corporate objective of decentralisation and bringing services to the ground, the KWS and Lewa partnered to establish the veterinary project. KWS has also partnered with other private partners in conservation and established two other veterinary projects one in Masai Mara and the other in Tsavo ecosystem.

The field projects are able to:
Provide rapid and reliable response to field emergencies.
Create a more effective disease early warning and surveillance network.
Reduce overall operating costs through, working on the ground rather than mobilising vets from the Headquarters (Nairobi).

Project execution
Upon KWS and Lewa partnering and establishing a mobile veterinary clinic through an MOU, a veterinarian from the KWS veterinary pool was nominated to run the Project Dr Stephen Maina Chege Holds a Bachelors degree in Veterinary medicine and an Advanced diploma in Business administration (ABE) and has wealth of experience in capture and translocation of wildlife, disease diagnosis and surveillance and good leadership qualities.

Area of operation
The veterinary project covers 2 big conservation areas namely, The Mountain region and the Meru conservation areas. In this regions are numerous National Parks, National Reserves and Private and Community Sanctuaries. These areas host more than half the Kenya’s population of the endangered black rhino, mountain bongos, wild dogs, Grevy,s Zebra and other wildlife species.

By Dr S. M Chege
Veterinarian

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