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The origins of IPR are intricately connected with the late patriarch of
the Leakey family Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (LSB Leakey). We have
retrieved some interesting documents from our archives outlining the
early formative years of the institute, and I bet there are many
captivating nuggets of the story surrounding the genesis and early life
of IPR that many of us have not heard of until now.
In 1958 when Dr LSB Leakey was visiting Ghana he found that
his friend, Dr. Alan Angus Booth, had died very suddenly after about
nine years of primate research work in Ghana, which he had carried out
jointly with his wife, Cynthia Booth. Both of them had been known to LSB
for a long time, and both were very highly qualified Cambridge
University graduates in Biology and Animal Behaviour. LSB enquired of
Cynthia what she planned to do now that her husband had died, and she
said that she would finish off the publication of their latest joint
report, and wind current research, and then she would wish to leave
Ghana. After pondering the matter for 24 hours, LSB suggested the next
day that she should come and continue research on monkeys with a base
somewhere near Nairobi. Accordingly, at the end of 1958 she arrived in
Kenya, and the Tigoni Primate Research Centre came into existence.
Cynthia bought a plot of land at Tigoni out of money paid by
insurance on her husband’s death, and this money also provided her with
a small income, which LSB was able to augment with £600 a year obtained
from Chicago. So at first the centre operated more or less on a
“shoe-string” budget. Cynthia and LSB physically built all the earlier
monkey cages, and the laboratory, doing most of the works at weekends to
save money on labour charges.
After the Research Centre was established and some 40 monkeys
and 5 species were in residence, LSB was able to persuade the National
Institute of Health (NIH), Bethesda, USA to provide a 4 year grant and
then a 5 year grant thereafter. Tigoni rapidly developed as a research
centre, and both Cynthia and LSB attended International Primate
Conferences almost every year, to report on their scientific work. The
main work over the first eight years was concerned with studies of
estrus cycles, birth, sexual behaviour, growth of infants, milk and
permanent tooth eruption sequence, and such factual information about
many species of East African monkeys which had hitherto been unrecorded.
The centre also focused its efforts on collection of East African
primate species and on taxonomic studies of the captive animals. LSB
pursued his interests in primate behaviour as a source of clues to early
man lifestyle. One of his greatest legacies stems from his role in
fostering field research of primates in their natural habitats, which he
understood as key to unravelling the mysteries of human evolution. It has
been reported that he personally chose three female researchers, Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas who were later dubbed ‘Leakeys
Angels’ and each went on to become world-renowned scholars in the field
of primatology.
At the end of 1966 it became apparent to LSB that it was not
worth spending a great deal more capital money on developments at the
Research Centre when the Research Centre itself was privately owned by
Cynthia Booth, and yet all the new buildings and cages going up were
vested in the National Institute of Health. LSB was considering the
desirability of purchasing the Tigoni property from Cynthia Booth, when
quite suddenly, he heard that an extremely desirable property of 20
acres, about half a mile away, was coming onto the market as the result
of the death of the owner. He immediately acquired the first option on
this property and then set about raising funds to purchase it. The funds
were granted by the Munitalp Foundation (Sir Malim Sorsbie) who covered
the mortgage and security on the land; the purchase was affected
forthwith under the name of the National Museums of Kenya. The Tigoni
National Primate Research Centre physically moved with all the
equipment, facilities and outdoor cages to the new property. By this
time, there were some 120 monkeys in the collection, representing 12
species.
Sir Ferdinand Cavendish-Bentinck, then Chairman of the Museum Trustees
of Kenya, offered the support of Museum Trustees name to facilitate the
provisions of the funds to the Centre now that it had become independent
of Cynthia Booth, and now that she was only a paid Director, and no
longer owner of the land. A few months later, however, the new Chairman
of the Trustees, Mr. Travis, refused to accept any responsibility by the
Museum‘s Trustees for Tigoni, but allowed the centre to continue using
the Museum name for purposes of the funding obtained from the National
Institute of Health. Early in 1968, just after LSB had made an
application for a new grant for five years from the National Institute
of Health, a Committee of the United States Senate, discovered that
$60,000 a year was being devoted to monkeys in Kenya, without even a
single United States citizen on the staff of the Tigoni centre; as a
result of this the National Institute of Health was instructed not to
renew the grant after 1968. With no other sources of funding, the
consequences of this action were inevitable and predictable – the
director, assistant director, manager and administrative officer all
resigned to find new employment, and LSB was left in great difficulties.
The Munitalp Foundation again came to his aid temporarily, and provided
funds for a nominal holding staff for the first six months of 1969,
primarily to save the monkey collection from disbandment. As a result
LSB and his remnant staff were able to maintain a somewhat “hand to
mouth” existence, with finances from the Leakey Foundation and other
bodies.
According to LSB own admission, the financial position
remained tenuous for a number of years thereafter, not sure from one six
months to the next whether he will have sufficient funds to sustain
operations. However, after some time other funding organizations
including the British Medical Research Council in London, and the Ford
Foundation in New York both became genuinely interested in the research,
and the prospects of better funding were improving.
In the meantime, it was suggested that the land on which the
centre stood, which was being held on mortgage charged to the Munitalp
Foundation ( this arrangement had only grudging support of the Museum
Trustees of Kenya) should be vested in a special new Board of Trustees
(or Directors). LSB suggested a small Board of Directors be appointed,
and was involved in drawing up the necessary Board rules and regulations
and hence began the close administrative association between NMK and IPR.
The Tigoni Primate Research Centre enjoyed tax exempt status, and the
land was also granted special status from a farm land to become research
land. According to LSB early letters, at this time the land, buildings
and property were probably worth some sterling pounds 20,000- 25,000,
much more than the original figure paid, but of course, there had been a
good many capital additions that made the facility a fully fledged
research Lab.
Dr LSB Leakey passed away on October 1st, 1972. In 1973, Dr Richard
Leakey as Director of the National Museums assumed responsibility for
running IPR. He appointed Dr. Sandy Richards as Director and liaison was
established with the University of Nairobi. Funding originating first
from the Louis Leakey Foundation and then from the Kenya Government,
supported studies in primate morphology, behaviour, anatomy, physiology
and nutrition. Around this time Dr Richard Leakey also managed to
persuade Sir Malim Sorsbie of Mulnitap Foundation to clear the mortgage
on the Tigoni property and have the National Museums of Kenya have clean
title for the land.
In 1975 Dr. Jim Else took over as Director and in the
remaining years of the 70’s the Institute of Primate Research or IPR, as
it was now called, began to flourish. It was during Jim’s tenure that
interest was generated in the development of a primate research centre
for biomedical research in a country in which animals were indigenous.
Funding was acquired from NIH through the regional primate research
centres in the USA (first through Oregon and later Yerkes) and from the
World Health Organizations Special Programme in Human Reproduction. From
1978-1983 development money from these sources enabled expansion of the
animal colony and staff. The staff in particular gained from training
programs and from a number of consultants who were based at IPR.
At the beginning of the 1980s, Dr Richard Leakey obtained the
land at Oloolua in the name of the National Museums of Kenya. Dr Leakey
states that this accomplishment was made possible by a great deal of
assistance from the then permanent secretary in the Ministry of Forests
and Natural Resources, the late Job Omino. By 1983 the construction of
new offices, Labs and animal facilities was completed through funding
from the Government of the Netherlands and IPR moved to its present site
of Oloolua just outside Karen, a suburb of Nairobi. This site was in
part selected so that IPR could play a role in conserving the indigenous
forest by preventing subdivision of the property for private use. Over
the subsequent years growth of the institution has been tremendous.
Animal numbers increased, facilities were enlarged to include more
laboratories, an administration complex and staff housing were added and
the staff numbers trebled. All this was made possible through support
from a variety of donors, including development support from the Kenya
Government, World Health Organization’s Special Programmes in Human
Reproduction and Tropical Diseases, and the European Community. This
support provided a sound base upon which we continue to build to this
day.
In recent years this form of institutional development
support has been largely withdrawn, but the IPR has successfully
competed to secure specific research funding to the value in excess of
$500 000 per year. In consequence research areas have expanded from the
conservation / ecology / primatology of the 1960’s to include
reproductive biology in the 1970’s and Tropical infectious diseases (parasitology,
virology) in the 1980’s. The present plans aim to expand these programs
but also establish new areas of work such as non-communicable diseases
and drug development programs. The facilities put up in the 1980s are
also now in need of major renovations and expansion to accommodate the
increasing demand by biomedical projects.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Dr LSB Leakey
dream and desire for a primate research centre, the entire IPR and NMK
fraternity recognize and honour his vision and drive that has established
a lasting legacy on the African research landscape – the Institute of
Primate Research, of the National Museums of Kenya.
Source: Official web of
Institute Primate Research (2009)
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