Former envoy Meg Whitman and other officials during the inaugural Kenya Rhino Range Expansion Board meeting.
Meg Whitman, the former United States ambassador to Kenya, on Tuesday made her first public appearance since resigning her post following President Donald Trump's election victory.
The former envoy, who stepped down in November 2024, was in Nairobi to attend the first board meeting of the Kenya Rhino Range Expansion (KRRE), of which she chairs its advisory board.
The meeting, held on Tuesday February 11, was also attended by Kenya's National Security Advisor to the President, Dr Monica Juma and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Director-General Erustus Kanga.
Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association CEO Dickson Ole Kaelo, Wildlife Research and Training Institute CEO Patrick Omondi and Ol Pejeta Conservancy CEO Justin Heath also attended the meeting.
"The Kenya Rhino Range Expansion Initiative aims to address the challenges of overcrowded conservancies, territorial conflicts and limited ecological space resulting from Kenya's successful rhino conservation efforts. By creating new, secure habitats, the KRRE initiative aims to promote sustainable population growth, enhance genetic diversity and ensure the long-term survival of Kenya's black rhinos," KWS said in a statement on its social media pages.
These efforts, KWS said, are in line with Kenya's National Black Rhino Recovery Action Plan (2022-2026), which envisions a meta-population of at least 2,000 eastern black rhinos in suitable habitats by 2037, with an interim target of 1,450 rhinos by Vision 2030.
Ms Whitman resigned a week after Donald Trump's stunning comeback to the White House and amid persistent calls from Kenyans for her to go.
An American billionaire who became only the second female US ambassador to Kenya, Ms Whitman tendered her resignation to outgoing US President Joe Biden days after Mr Trump’s win.
She hasn't been seen in public since President William Ruto bid her farewell at State House, Nairobi.
Ms Whitman had about a year left in her term, following the American tradition of sending envoys for three years, with rare exceptions for extensions.
She came under fire for allegedly looking the other way when government agents violated civil liberties.
A public defender of the Ruto presidency, she was once described by opposition leader Raila Odinga as a 'rogue ambassador', although the two later reconciled, as evidenced by their appearances at public events.
Mr Odinga himself has since aligned himself with Dr Ruto under the broad-based government, which has seen the former's key lieutenants included in a revamped cabinet.
But Ms Whitman has also been criticised for failing to speak out about abuses, including abductions and disappearances of civilians, particularly after the Gen-Z protests in June last year.
When protests continued, the US Embassy under Ms Whitman called on the police to “to exercise restraint and protect the rights of people to demonstrate peacefully” and called on “provocateurs and opportunists to avoid blocking roads and looting businesses.”
“All actors – police and protesters alike – should repudiate violence and be held accountable for wrongdoing.”
While the US often insisted its values of democracy and governance remained intact, there had been a notable omission in their Nairobi Embassy under Ms Whitman, when most Western diplomatic missions called for investigations into the abductions and disappearances of persons deemed critical of the government.
Before she left, however, Ms Whitman clarified the US had always been “frank about the co-values that Kenya and the US share” whenever she held talks with President Ruto.
