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Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) have a long-standing and successful relationship for the sake of the protection of Kenya’s wildlife heritage.
IFAW, in keeping with their conservation prescription of protecting animals and the places they call home, donated to KWS assorted equipment valued at 7, 105, 107 Kenya Shillings (US$ 71, 051) on November 26, 2018. The handing over was done outside Kifaru Court, the Intelligence hub at KWS headquarters.
Equipments handed over by IFAW comprised laptops, printers, external hard drives, projectors, motor bikes and tires, smart phones, GPS navigation devices, binoculars and iPads.
tenBoma is a wildlife security initiative between KWS and IFAW that seeks to modernize KWS Security operations with a focus on strengthening KWS intelligence network by building capacity to analyse intelligence data and quickly provide actionable intelligence to combat poaching and enhance wildlife security.
tenBoma architect, IFAW Senior Vice President Lt. Col Faye Cuevas, alongside East Africa Regional Director James Isiche, developed a system of integrated networks involving local and global communities united with one goal: to predict and prevent a poacher's next strike.
Bill Gates said, “With few exceptions, things don’t get better because of heroes. There were heroes 1,000 years ago, and the world was awful,” quoted Ms Cuevas, who has brought the cutting-edge technology more commonly associated with modern warfare to the anti-poaching fight.
The same geospatial mapping techniques and data analysis used by the US military to fight terrorism are now being deployed in a sophisticated offense to rival poachers’ criminal networks.
KWS ground troops will benefit from both these equipments and through training and mentorship in the same analytical techniques used in counter terrorism.
KWS Director in charge of Wildlife Conservation and Protection, Julius Kimani, whilst receiving the donation, expressed appreciation for IFAW’s low-key but high impact approach to philanthropy. He said that it is not often that such benevolence goes unannounced; noting that the technology donated would enable KWS to do what needs to be done in the right way, to ensure that we save the last great species and places on earth for humanity.
