- Kenya’s national population of lions was estimated at 2,749 in 2002, 2,280 in 2004, 2,000 in 2008 and 2,480 in 2020.
- It is expected that the population could be over 2,500 following the just concluded national census
Kenya Tuesday joined in commemorating World Lion Day by pledging that the big cat will be given more protection.
Tourism CS Najib Balala, his PS Fred Segor and Kenya Wildlife Service director general John Waweru led the country in marking the day at the KWS headquarters, Langata Road.
World Lion Day is observed on August 10 every year across the globe to raise awareness and to educate people about lions.
It also seeks to find sustainable solutions to protect and save lion populations from extinction globally.
Balala said the lion population in Africa has been on a steady decline in the last 100 years, with the population declining by 96.5 per cent.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature says the lion population in Africa in 1900 was about one million.
By the 1940s, however, the numbers had dropped to 500,000.
The CS said the African continent had 200,000 lions in 1975 but in 1990 there were just 100,000.
“By, the year 2000, the population had declined drastically to only 35,000. Today there are about 20,000 lions with the number continuing to drop,” Balala said.
The CS said the big cats in Kenya just like the other parts of the region, had declined.
“In Kenya, while we similarly have had declines over the years, our population has been recovering from a low of 1,970 in 2008 to 2,589 according to our just concluded National Wildlife Census,” he said.
Kenya’s national population of lions was estimated at 2,749 in 2002, 2,280 in 2004, 2,000 in 2008 and 2,480 in 2020.
These lions occur in a number of Kenya’s protected areas, with large populations in the Maasai Mara and the Tsavo ecosystem.
In addition, there are important lion populations outside protected areas in Laikipia and Kajiado.
Balala said the figures are still low and there is a need to continue with efforts to raise the number higher.
During the event, two lion sculptures were unveiled in what Balala said will go a long way in raising awareness and appreciation among all Kenyans lion’s magnificent heritage the country has and a wake-up call to conserve them.
The sculptures will later be auctioned and proceeds directed to the conservation of lions.
Balala said human-wildlife conflict is a challenge for the government.
“We need similar international attention paid to helping address this very important aspect. We cannot expect our communities to support conservation efforts if they are continuing to suffer the costs,” he said.
Segor urged the private sector to support the government by putting more resources into conservation.
The PS said some of the threats facing the lion emanates from increased human population and associated land-use changes, climate change, habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, illegal wildlife trade and human-wildlife conflict.
Waweru on the other hand said lions are at the top of the food chain and have no natural enemy except man.
He said most challenges facing lion conservation stem from the linked issues of human population growth and the resultant loss of habitat available for lions.
In response to these challenges, Waweru said KWS has developed a National Lion Conservation Strategy that aims to conserve lions within the context of the wider approach to the conservation of Kenya’s wildlife.
“This will entail conserving not only numerically viable populations of lions but also viable populations of prey species and—critically—natural ecological interactions between lions and their prey. This will require conservation activities to occur outside, as well as inside, national parks and national reserves,” Waweru said.
He said management outside these protected areas will seek to minimise the negative impact of lions on local people’s livelihoods.
Meanwhile, World Animal Protection has lauded South Africa for announcing that it will shut lions bred and kept in captivity.
Edith Kabesiime, Wildlife Campaigns Manager at World Animal Protection said it had reduced lions into mere commodities.
"We encourage consumer countries to ban exports of lion parts from Africa. We will monitor to see how they will phase out the over 8,000 lions in captivity," she told a virtual meeting.
Kabesiime said lions have vanished from approximately 90 per cent of their former natural range.
She said wildlife should be free from cruel exploitation.
-Edited by SKanyara
