Nairobi — Something is amiss at the Kenya Wildlife Service, according to reports and documents from the wildlife body that The EastAfrican has obtained.

An internal report from the organisation finds it wanting as far as securing the survival and wellbeing of wildlife in its parks is concerned.

According to documents and photographs, a number of principal parks, particularly Tsavo East and Tsavo West, have in the past two years been overrun by tens of thousands of illegal livestock and miners who operate under the very watch of KWS's rangers and wardens.

The herders, who are mainly from Tanzania and Somalia, have invaded the two expansive parks largely because of the readily available pasture and also because Taita-Taveta district - the location of both parks - was declared a disease-free zone by Kenya's veterinary department.

The matter of illegal herders in the park first drew the attention of KWS almost two years ago. This led to a report that exposed the exact nature of the invasion of the parks and who was behind it.

Prepared in September of 2006, the report mentions the different areas that had been invaded by tens of thousands of livestock in both Tsavo East and West and how KWS had attempted to drive them away.

These areas are Kasighau, Kanjaro, Kavuma, Jipe, Salaita and near the Kenya-Tanzania border. In Tsavo East, the livestock has invaded the southern areas, in Koito along Tiva River and between Lali Hills and Kone.

The report says that in many of the areas, the livestock numbers ranged between 400 and 28,000. The report also cited a lack of commitment and low morale among rangers as a "contributory" factor.

But more importantly, the report cites corruption on the part of KWS's park personnel as one of the main reasons why there has been such massive invasion.

It says the relevant personnel had been "taking bribes from herdsmen to influence them not to enforce the law." It also says that some of KWS personnel have been keeping their own livestock inside the park and have been "aiding the herders" by leaking information to herdsmen on the movement and deployments of rangers.

It goes ahead to mention - by name and rank - the key personnel behind the scam, some of them retired from KWS.

"These are serious issues that need to be urgently addressed in order to correct the already tarnished image," says the report, which also asks the KWS director to facilitate "fair investigations" by an independent body.

That the problem is serious was underscored by a recommendation made in the report asking that the central government "be made aware of the problem which is now almost out of control."

The report cites deterioration of the two parks' environment and displacement of wildlife leading to increased human-wildlife conflict as one of the serious consequences of the livestock invasion. It also talks of "increased threats to tourism," destruction of parks' infrastructure and an increase in poaching in the parks.

The EastAfrican has also established that smallscale miners appear to have cashed in on the ongoing low morale and lack of funds to conduct security operations within the parks.

The Wildlife Act outlaws mining in parks and states: "No person shall search for, attempt to win or win any minerals in, or remove any minerals from, a national park."

Following these developments, both conservationists and tour operators have expressed serious concerns over what they term as "neglect" by KWS's top brass of the body's conservation mandate in the two Tsavo national parks and elsewhere.

They are particularly concerned that the herders have gone ahead to construct manyattas (shelters) within the two parks and decry the practice by tour guides to openly drive off the designated roads in search of rare carnivores.

That this has been happening in many of the country's parks has been captured in photographs that have been passed on to The East-African.

The evidence seems to go contrary to the attempt by KWS's management to paint a somewhat rosy picture on how it has been running the wildlife body in general and the country's protected areas in particular. A suave media campaign appears to have largely camouflaged the real situation.

Several critics have expressed displeasure with the fact that KWS's top management appears largely interested in promoting the corporation's marketing and business functions as opposed to meeting its wildlife protection and conservation mandate.

"It is evident that although we are losing control of such parks as the two Tsavos to miners and herders and that the kind of tourism practised in our parks is unplanned and free for all, the top management is merely interested in devising ever-smarter ways of collecting revenue," said one senior warden who declined to be named.

The KWS seems to be under administrative restraints. For one, it has operated for up to seven months now without a board, whose term expired last December.

However, the board's continued stay in office is in itself a breach of the law that guides KWS's overall operations.

Dr Kipng'etich has made making considerable success at different fronts. This has included steering the wildlife body towards the writing and adoption of a five-year Strategic Plan (2005-2010) that spells out how the organisation intends to handle its mandate during that period.

In addition, KWS scored a first during the last meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) at The Hague, Netherlands, after it successfully led the lobbying for a nine-year ban on the trade in ivory.

Being the management scientist he is, Dr Kipng'etich also managed to raise the profile of KWS-protected areas through a project that had 14 of its land-based and marine national parks branded.

The exercise also incorporated construction and rehabilitation of staff houses and community projects - classrooms, clinics and water projects.

However, many of the achievements - including the collection of Ksh2.5 billion ($39.6 million) in revenues in 2007 - have only gone towards meeting an insignificant part of the organisation's mandate as spelt out in the Wildlife (Conservation & Management) Act of 1989.

The Act states in part that KWS's functions are formulating policies "regarding the conservation, management and utilisation" of national parks and reserves.

Other functions include the provision of wildlife conservation education, conducting research, fundraising and assisting ranchers and game farmers to protect their crops and livestock against destruction by wildlife.

Although those who came up with the Act seemed to have assumed that KWS would manage all the money-making ventures within its parks and reserves, nowhere does the 1989 amended Act state that the organisation's business operations take precedence its role of protecting, preserving and conserving the country's wildlife resources.

Indeed, KWS seemed to have realised this as it also states in the strategic plan that one of its strategic objectives is to "enhance wildlife conservation, protection and management."

All attempts by The EastAfrican to get reaction from KWS's communication office were futile.