The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is teaming up with the office of the Kenya’s First Lady, Margaret Kenyatta, to empower African communities to combat poachers and conserve wildlife

Nairobi, 21 June 2014: Political leaders are getting down to business on the first day of the United Nations Environment Assembly. At midday, I am one of the guests at the State House Luncheon on Wildlife Conservation, hosted by the First Lady, Margaret Kenyatta. The main topic is the one closest to my heart: how to win the war against elephant and rhino poachers and stamp out the illegal trade in wildlife products.

A highlight of the event is the announcement by Helen Clark, Administrator of the UNDP, of a major new partnership that will help fund the “Hands Off Our Elephants” campaign, which is run by Wildlife Direct, the NGO I work for.

Margaret Kenyatta, wife of Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, is a patron of the Hand Off Our Elephants campaign and has become its figurehead. She has broken traditional roles to become the first First Lady in Africa to champion an animal cause.



The money, US$ 100,000, will be used to empower local communities living near elephants to develop livelihoods strategies that are in harmony with wildlife conservation. In her presentation address, Helen Clark noted that poaching “not only pushes vulnerable and endangered species toward extinction, it also fuels corruption and conflict, destroys lives, and deepens poverty and inequality”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Communities living near the Amboseli National Park will benefit from the new programme supported by UNDP Photograph: DLILLC/Tim Davis/CORBIS

In the early days of her husband’s presidency, the First Lady knew little about elephants. She was also quite shy and did not want to make public speeches or be seen on TV. Within one month she was talking to school students, visiting field community field projects, marching down the highways with crowds of supporters, and giving interviews to local and international media.

Her enormous curiosity and interest meant that she very quickly became a trusted and influential advocate for elephants and wildlife. Her passion is written all over her face and through her many Kenyans discovered the magic of elephants as if for the first time.



Three months into the campaign, 43% of all Kenyans knew about it – and not just Kenyans. At a wildlife summit in I attended in Botswana last December, one African delegate who did not know lamented the absence of African voices speaking up for wildlife conservation, but then said: "But the First Lady of Kenya is doing amazing things".

Margaret Kenyatta is genuinely troubled by what is happening and feels the pain and suffering of elephants very personally. When she first got involved, she told us that she would not visit a dead elephant and to this day she has not been able to go face-to-face with a poached elephant.

Helen Clark was Prime Minister of New Zealand for almost 10 years before being appointed to the UN’s third most powerful post as Administrator of the UNDP. Rated the 24th most powerful women in the world by Forbes magazine, she is spoken of a possible successor to Ban Ki-moon to become the UN’s first woman Secretary-General.

I have to admit that the sight of these two great women standing up for elephants in front of the world’s press filled me with pride – but above all it gave me hope in these dark times for Africa’s wildlife. Their message was a simple one: “We must all collaborate to stop this horrific trade,” said Helen Clark.

The First Lady argued that the battle on poaching and illegal wildlife trophies trade cannot be won by a single entity: “We should work hand in hand”. Campaigns like Hands Off Our Elephants have “brought together communities to conserve wildlife”. Her support provides high-level endorsement of the importance of civil society campaigns as part of Kenya’s national anti-poaching strategy.

Our relationship with government agencies has not always been an easy one. We don't always agree on key issues like the poaching statistics and at times we are even portrayed as being at loggerheads with key authorities. I admit that we are impatient for success, and with good reason. We know what Kenya can do and has done in the past, and every day we are confronted with more horrific evidence of the urgency of the situation.

Despite our differences with state agencies, we know that we stand for the same thing, saving elephants. To me, supporting government is not about just agreeing with everything they say and do. It means constantly holding them to the highest standards, in order for Kenya to achieve the excellence that we know is possible.

The willingness of the Kenyan government to listen to what we have to say is a huge part of the success of Kenya's response to the escalating crisis. John Scanlon, CITES Secretary-General, was present at this launch and in his speech he pointed out that the countries making the most progress in combating wildlife crime are those with open societies and tolerance of campaigns like ours.

This sometimes uneasy partnership provides the basis for a truly African leadership in the battle against poaching. This is essential. While the whole world is naturally concerned about the massacre of African elephants, I do not believe that elephants can be saved by protests in London or New York.



I wonder how British people would feel if King Mswati III of Swaziland ran a campaign to mobilize Africans to end the British badger cull. The people of Africa have to be inspired to lead on African issues.

In her address, Margaret Kenyatta called for the harmonization of regional wildlife conservation legislation to combat cross-border poaching and smuggling. She said that harmonization would deepen cooperation in the region, especially in jointly combating the ivory trade. Her message is profound: African leadership must include building partnerships not only within, but also between countries.

Hands Off Our Elephants is an African campaign to inform and mobilize African citizens to demand that our leaders take the necessary actions to save our heritage, our economic future, our aspirations and our identity. Margaret Kenyatta is setting a new standard for Africa, by demonstrating a new kind of leadership that could transform Africa's response to emerging crises like the slaughter of elephants.