Accomplished Woman Running Special Project Alongside Margaret Kenyatta

First Lady Margaret Kenyatta is well-known for her fierce activism in empowering the lives of women and children through initiatives like Beyond Zero, and also through intense lobbying to ensure that women in the country get equal opportunities to grow their businesses.

She is the patron of the Hands Off Our Elephants campaign, assisted by a close friend and ally Paula Kahumbu who is the CEO of Wildlife Direct.

In July 2013, the first lady, in conjunction with WildlifeDirect, launched the campaign, partnering with civil society, corporations, government agencies and other conservation organizations in a unified approach towards ending the poaching crisis in Kenya.

First lady Margaret Kenyatta, second right, in a walk after the flag off.First right is Dr Paula Kahumbu CEO Wildlife Direct,Executive Director Elephant Neigbours centre Mr Jim Nyamu,second left and Professor Judi Wakhungu,The Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kenya on November 18, 2016.

According to the Wildlife Direct's website, Hands Off Our Elephants was launched in response to the rapid escalation of elephant and rhino poaching, and the government's failure to acknowledge and deal with the crisis.

Paula Kahumbu is a Kenyan conservationist with a PhD from Princeton University, where she studied ecology and evolutionary biology and conducted her field research on elephants in Kenya.

She also has under her belt, a masters degree in forestry and range science from The Florida University in Gainesville, US.

Kahumbu, through her conservation efforts, bagged the Whitley Award in 2014, and was the winner of the National Geographic/Howard Buffet Conservation Leader for Africa Award in 2011, and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer Award in the same year.

She was also a recipient of the Order of the Grand Warrior (OGW) award in 2013 and was appointed the Brand Kenya Ambassador in 2013.

Kahumbu has also had a stellar career before fully immersing herself in animal and wildlife conservation.



In 2005, she joined Bamburi Cement and ran Lafarge Eco Systems, a company that specialises in reafforestation of limestone quarries.

Paula Kahumbu going about her day to day activities.

Paula Kahumbu receiving the Whitley Award in 2014.