Kafue Lechwe (Kobus leche kafuensis) is one of five subspecies of Southern Lechwe (Kobus leche), following Ansell and Banfield (1979), Birungi and Arctander (2001) and Cotterill (2005). The other subspecies being: Black Lechwe (K. l. smithemani); Red Lechwe (K. l. leche); Robert's Lechwe (K. l. robertsi) and Upemba Lechwe (K. l. anselli).

The population of this subspecies has undergone an estimated continuing decline of 69% over 19 years (three generations; 63% absolute decline between 1999 and 2015) due to poaching, changes to water management, disease, agricultural encroachment and invasive species of vegetation. The entire population is restricted to a single location (Kafue Flats). Maintenance of a seasonal flooding regime is critically important to its survival and significant alteration to the current hydrological status could prove catastrophic.

Kafue Lechwe (K. l. kafuensis) is confined to the Kafue Flats, a wetland area in the middle Kafue River system of Central Zambia. 

For the distribution map, see the parent species assessment: Kobus leche.

The Kafue Lechwe population has been monitored for many years, and has a reliable time-series of population records. In the early 1970s, estimates consistently put the population at between 90,000 and 110,000. By the early 1980s the population had been reduced to between 40,000 and 45,000, but increased thereafter slowly to between 50,000 and 70,000 (Jeffery and Nefdt 2013 and references therein). East (1999) estimated a total of 78,000. An aerial survey in April 2015 estimated 28,711 (Shanungu et al. 2015) an absolute decline of 63% since 1999.

Lechwe prefer floodplain grasslands, shallow water margins of floodplains and swamps (less than 1 m deep), shallow water meadows and light woodlands and termitaria grasslands on their periphery (Jeffery and Nefdt 2013).

Water flow on the Kafue floodplain has been regulated almost entirely by human needs since the construction of hydroelectric dams at the eastern and western ends of the Flats in the 1970s. The Kafue Flats are also used for livestock grazing and the peripheral area is densely settled, particularly in the south. Shanungu et al. (2015) listed the causes of the decline as encroachment by invasive shrubs, the native Dicrostachys cinerea and the alien Mimosa pigra; disease including bovine TB; poaching; and high level of legal harvest (annual quota of 598) as well as cattle grazing and human encroachment.

Kafue Lechwe are hunted primarily for meat but also for sport (Jeffery and Nefdt 2013). It is possible that revenue generation through sustainable offtake by sport hunters which capitalises on the species’ value as a trophy animal and the development of sustainable harvesting to provide meat for local people in the Kafue Flats, may play a role in the conservation of lechwe populations (East 1999).

Occur in Lochinvar and Blue Lagoon National Parks and Kafue Flats Game Management Area (Jeffery and Nefdt 2013).