Kenya and Costa Rica - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 195

There are 47 counties, each electing its own governor. The structure is in
flux awaiting implementation of the new Constitution.
With respect to the environment, the key ministries are Forestry and
Wildlife, Environment and Minerals, and Water. Within the Forestry and
Wildlife Ministry, the Wildlife Service, which dates back to colonial pro-
grams, is responsible for the parks and game. Other bureaus cover forests.
Like the rest of the bureaucracy, these ministries adhered to the model of
the British civil service. In theory at least, the civil servants were hired and
promoted for their competency. Employees entered at the junior level and
could look forward to a life-long career. They were supposed to be politi-
cally neutral, following the directions of their minister who was a Member
of Parliament. They were to be unbiased and not play favorites. There was a
Permanent Secretary who was a civil servant who headed the bureaucracy,
providing expertise and continuity. As with all agencies, it proved difficult
to maintain neutrality and honesty.
Traditional life did not place a heavy burden on the land. Farming
was primitive, and much of the countryside was used for nomadic graz-
ing. People lived in harmony with nature. The first exploitation came
from Arab traders who sent expeditions into the interior for slaves and
ivory. They would kill elephants, and force the newly enslaved victims to
carry the tusks to the coast for export. Early in the 20th century, British,
Europeans, and American hunters began to come for the big game. In 1909,
former president Theodore Roosevelt landed in Mombasa to begin a year-
long safari. He had just left the White House and wanted some adventure. 5
Besides shooting, the expedition sought scientific data and specimens for
museums. They took many photographs, and even motion pictures.
Africans, of course, had always hunted, mostly for the pot but also to
defend their herds from predation, and to keep animals out of their small
farms. Using arrows, they shot dikdik, bushbuck, and bush pig. Even prior
to colonization, tribes like the Kamba hunted elephants for their ivory and
rhinos for their horns to trade with Arab merchants on the coast. They
were able to kill an elephant with poison arrows. Except the ivory and
horn, subsistence hunting had little effect on the natural environment.
Sport hunting was different. As soon as the whites arrived, they pursued
big game. Colonial officials and Highland settlers began to shoot lions,
elephants, and rhinos. The British, Europeans, and Americans shot huge
numbers of game for trophies, and occasionally as part of scientific explora-
tion. Roosevelt sent specimens back to the Smithsonian Institution. By the
1920s settlers had increased in number, and they killed to protect their