Resolution Health adopts Cheetah Nairobi Animal Orphanage

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Resolution Health CEO Peter Nduati (left) and KWS Director with newly adopted cheetah and dummy cheque

Medical insurance provider Resolution Health East Africa is the latest corporate corporate organisation to adopt and name a wild animal at the Nairobi Animal Orphanage. Resolution Health East Africa chief executive Peter Nduati and staff named the seven-year-old cheetah ‘Misty Harmony’ in honour of the company’s latest product to be launched.

Two months ago, various corporate organisations and Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife officials paid homage to the wild animals they adopted at the orphanage. They took part in cleaning the cages and feeding the animals as part of build-up activities towards the launch of the Kenya Wildlife Service Fund. The orphaned and sick animals cared for while being used for research and educational purposes.

In November last year, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt and Prime Minister Rt Hon Raila Odinga adopted a cheetah cub and lion, respectively at the launch of the Namayiana Animal Adoption Programme. Since then, industrialist Manu Chandaria and corporates like Kenya Tourist Board, Microsoft East Africa have adopted their animals.Usain Bolt was the first international star to adopt an orphaned animal. Mr. Bolt adopted a 3-month-old male cheetah cub nicknamed Lightning Bolt. He paid $13,700 to formally adopt the cub, and will also pay $3,000 a year to care for him. Lightning Bolt will be raised at an animal orphanage in Nairobi. Bolt was joined on the trip by Colin Jackson, a former 110-meter hurdles Olympic champion who adopted a 2-year-old eland, the largest of the antelope species.
New arrivals available for adoption include two one month-old lion cubs and two leopards aged two weeks old. KWS has 56 animals for adoption at the Nairobi Animal Orphanage and more than 40 at the Kisumu Impala Sanctuary. Part of the proceeds from the adoption programme go towards the soon to be launched Kenya Wildlife Service Fund.Animals up for adoption are usually those that have been abandoned by their parents or rescued from poachers. Many of Kenya’s wild animals are under threat from illegal hunting, drought, changing land use, and pressure from human encroachment.
 
The Kenya Wildlife Service Animal Adoption Programme is one of the activities KWS is rolling out in the build up to the launch of an endowment fund to support Kenya’s wildlife heritage.  The fund seeks to raise Sh7.5 billion (US$100 million) over 10 years to facilitate conservation of Kenya’s wildlife through challenges of climate change, drought, changing land use and high population growth. The fund is also meant to cushion wildlife conservation from over-reliance on volatile tourism trends. The kitty will support wildlife and community conservation efforts for generations to come, and will be used for security operations, research and monitoring, translocations, infrastructure, conservation education and other conservation requirements. So far Sh22, 000,000 (US$ 293,000) has been raised for the fund. This includes Sh20 million set aside by the Kenya Wildlife Service, Sh380,000 from KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Sh496,750 from the Cycle with the Rhino, Dr Scott Rogers Sh12,500. And 1,074,000 raised by KWS staff.

Expected contributors to the fund include the Kenyan government, bilateral donors, visitors, foundations, private companies and concerned Kenyans. A new dynamic website to be launched soon has a provision for online donations. The Animal Adoption Programme gives individuals and corporates a chance to sponsor and consequently adopt an animal at the Nairobi Animal Orphanage with   50 per cent of the sponsorship going to the conservation fund and the rest catering for the animal’s yearly upkeep. Each animal is divided into shares based on the cost of its yearly upkeep. 
Nairobi Animal Orphanage is famed for its world-renowned efforts to care for abducted, abandoned and injured wild animals. With animals from as far as West and North Africa, the facility has wild animals of all kinds and species. The animals are used for educational and research purposes. The latest high profile guests included US Vice President Joe Biden and International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Moreno Ocampo.