A passion for conserving the environment

If Wangechi Kiongo were to count the trees she has planted since 2013, the number could be around 2,000, she says.

Yet if life had played out as the 23-year-old environmentalist had  envisioned, she would be a media personality, since that  was her standard measure of accomplishment as a child, until she ended up in an environmental studies class at university  and discovered her true calling.

“I loved languages but I didn’t make the cut to study mass communication,” says the co-founder of Save Lake Turkana Movement.  “When I enrolled for a degree course in Environmental Studies at Karatina University in 2013, I joined the University’s Nature club since  it was compulsory for students pursuing the course.

The club activities such as tree planting, coupled with what was I learning in class on the challenges facing environment conservation, aroused  an interest in me. So I decided to step out and create awareness of the environmental trends, challenges, opportunities and the importance of conserving the environment.

As an environmentalist, I advocate for environmental conservation and sustainable development with the interests of future generations at heart.

I do this through social media campaigns, community outreaches and through various environmental youth groups and forums.

I am focused on raising environmental awareness and instilling environmental values into society at large,” she says.

In 2013, when she was laying the foundation for her newfound passion, she met the founder of Environmental Africa, an online platform that uses creative writing to popularise and enhance sustainability in Africa, who gave her an opportunity to grow through researching and writing environment-related articles.

She did this diligently while serving as the vice-president of the university’s Nature Club. She takes pride in an article she wrote about the need to ban plastic bag,s which was featured on The Platform, a national political magazine, in 2014. Three years later, the ban was effected.

“In 2016, I got an opportunity to intern with International Rivers, an organisation that advocates for the protection of rivers and the rights of communities that depend on them. I was assigned to research on Lake Turkana and Gilgel Gibe Dam in Ethiopia. As I was doing the research, I interacted with communities neighbouring the lake and recognised that they depended solely on it for survival. With the predicted reduction in water levels, I realised that their livelihood was at stake,” she offers.

This prompted  the formation of the Save Lake Turkana Movement, a community-based organisation that aims at promoting sustainable development around Lake Turkana, advocating for environmental consciousness on matters pertaining to development that might affect communities that depend on the Lake as well as create awareness on the importance of conserving the world’s heritage site.

“With my team of volunteers, we have managed to conduct scientific researches, film documentaries such as Water to Dust, which have been aired on national televisions, all with the aim of creating awareness of  the fate facing the world’s largest desert Lake. We have also held several screenings, forums and events to celebrate the lake and share ideas on what we, as youth, can do to conserve it.

This year, Wangechi and her team of volunteers will be working to strengthen alternative livelihoods in Turkana and Marsabit and conduct more research on issues affecting the lake. She hopes to reach out to decision-makers by amplifying the voices of the communities around the lake and finding sustainable solutions that favour their  development and the lake’s sustainability.

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION

She has received recognition for her work. Last year she won the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Youth Land for Life Social Media Activist of the year 2017. The award, saw her represent Africa inthe Annual Green Corps programme that was held in the Kubuqi desert inChina.

 “We got some in-depth training on combating desertification and restoring degraded lands, which I have been working on implementing in Kenya,” she says

In September 2017, she was selected to attend the Conference of Parties (COP13) in Inner Mongolia, China, where she represented the Kenya in Youth Forum, to discuss the desertification agenda. She was also awarded the Social Media Award in November last year during the Africa Youth Leadership Forum in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

“I am happy that I have since found a way to combine my love for communications and environmental conservation through writing environment-related articles and using social media to create awareness. I run a blog, Wangechi Kiongo-In Sync With Nature, and I have written on various platforms such as the  International Rivers blog, Environmental Africa and The Platform.

However, despite her achievements, she says it has not been easy.

 “I live in Nyeri but our main project is in Turkana. There are many logistics involved in getting there yet I don’t have any specific source of funding. Sometimes I get funding from grants, well-wishers/individuals, at other times I’m supported by various interested organisations and when the going gets tough, my team and I have to dig deep into our pockets.”

As a mentor, she hopes to create a movement of young people who are conscious of their environment and this she does by holding tree-planting events and environmental mentorship programmes in schools around Nyeri and Laikipia counties.

“I aspire to have a global initiative that will bring together youth from different disciplines to exchange ideas and come up with scientific and social solutions to environmental conservation,” she says.