By KARI MUTU

More by this Author

Kenyan wildlife TV series Wildlife Warriors was recognised at the prestigious 2021 Jackson Wild media festival in the USA. The episode entitled Samburu Lions received Special Jury Recognition in the category of Global Voices at the media festival, in an announcement released this month.

Wildlife Warriors is filmed and produced by the Kenyan conservation organisation, WildlifeDirect and airs every week on Kenya's KBC television station.

“I am so proud of my team at WildlifeDirect and Vivid Features film production as well as our amazing donors at USAid, The Wild Lives Foundation and National Geographic,” said Paula Kahumbu, the chief executive of WildlifeDirect.

Established in 1991, Jackson Wild is an annual non-profit film festival that takes place in Jackson, Wyoming, US. There were over 600 entries from around the world competing for 30 awards. Global Voices aims to highlight stories presented from local perspectives and created by local filmmakers from countries in the global South.

Samburu Lions highlights the work of Samburu conservation hero, Jeneria Lekilelei, and his team of warriors working for Ewaso Lions, a conservation organisation in the West Gate Conservancy of Samburu County. Ewaso Lions was founded in 2008 by Kenyan ecologist, Shivani Bhalla, to save lions by promoting peaceful co-existence between people and wild animals.

Wildlife Warriors episode on rhinos at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy was shortlisted for a prize at the Latin American Nature Awards in 2020, and another episode on whales in Watamu was screened at a session of the 2020 Sankalp Film Festival in India. A Watamu turtles episode will feature at the Wildlife Film Festival Rotterdam of Rotterdam, Netherlands in October.

Jackson Wild is widely acknowledged as the leading global awards in natural history media and is one of the highest accolades that wildlife film makers strive for.