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Meg Whitman: The US envoy who never left
Former United States Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman during an interview at the Ambassador’s Tate House Residence in Nairobi on June 8, 2024.
Much like the approximately 2,000 rhinos within Kenya’s borders, former US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman’s public sightings in the country have been few and far between.
But unlike the rhinos, Ms Whitman is not an endangered species.
On Tuesday, Ms Whitman made her rare second public appearance in Kenya, when she joined President William Ruto, his National Security Adviser Monica Juma and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) top brass in officially opening the Tsavo West Rhino Sanctuary.
Ms Whitman resigned as US Ambassador to Kenya one week after Donald Trump won both the popular and Electoral College vote – the first such win for a Republican candidate since 2004 – securing his return as US President.
Public speculation linked Whitman’s resignation to an expected change of guard resulting from Trump’s win.
Former US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman
“I will not settle in Kenya, but I’ll be involved in a couple of projects,” Ms Whitman said in an interview with the Sunday Nation two days after resigning, adding that she was interested in a rhino range expansion project.
Ms Whitman did not publicly state the reasons for quitting, and quietly retreated until February 11 2025, when she was spotted attending the Kenya Rhino Range Expansion (KRRE) Board meeting in Nairobi.
Ms Juma chaired the meeting.
The Nation at the time established that Ms Whitman had been appointed chairperson of the KRRE’s Advisory Board, a position she holds to date.
The KRRE is a non-profit organisation on a mission to ensure that rhinos – whose population has slowly started growing due to Kenya’s conservation efforts – have a safe habitat with fewer threats from poachers and territorial conflicts.
The KRRE and Ms Whitman, were central to fundraising for the establishment of the Tsavo West Rhino Sanctuary – the largest such facility in the world, covering 3,200 square kilometres.
Former US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman.
“This transformation has been made possible through the strong technical and financial support of the Kenya Rhino Range Expansion programme, the lead partner behind Kenya’s landscape-scale rhino recovery efforts. KRRE’s Chief Executive Officer, James Gaymer, emphasised that effective conservation is nation-building, and that every rhino protected contributes to environmental and economic resilience,” the KWS said in a statement released on Tuesday.
Ms Whitman’s term as US envoy in Nairobi drew mixed feelings from Kenyans on account of her embassy’s activity, or lack of it, on a number of national issues.
Some Kenyans were displeased with the US Embassy’s and Ms Whitman’s, failure to issue public statements on abductions and the killing of protestors during the June 2024 youth-led demonstrations.
Ms Whitman later asked the police and protestors to avoid violence.
During her tenure, the then ambassador made known her love for nature and the environment, visiting a number of Kenya’s gems such as the Ngong Hills, Mt Longonot, Maasai Mara Game Reserve, and Amboseli National Park, among others.
The sanctuary in Tsavo West is part of Kenya’s plans to double the black rhino population to 2,000 by 2037.
During the launch on Tuesday, the KWS said it expects revenues of up to $45 million (Sh5.8 billion) to be generated through the establishment.
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