Paul Kilelu --- Fighting for a Noble Cause

By Halima Tahirkheli

Nabuur is pleased to introduce you to Paul Kilelu, the local representative of the Kajiado village. His dedication to fight against poverty and social equality led him to provide assistance to the International Center for the Conservation of African Range Land (ICCAR), an organization aimed at alleviating poverty, promoting woman's right, and environmental protection in Kenya.

Paul grew up in a humble background. As a child, he was responsible to look after his father's goats and cows. But he was still able to achieve good academic results in primary school, which landed him a position at a Government secondary institution. After obtaining a secondary education, Paul desperately wanted to enroll in college. But due to financial problems, he was not able to attend immediately. Paul decided to start his own business of selling and purchasing livestock in the market. He was successful in his business and decided to pursue further education in international computer driving license and aviation technology.

After graduating from college, Paul noticed many people in his community were selling their land to purchase basic needs for themselves and their family member. Selling land goes against the Kenyan culture, because many Kenyan people have a close relationship with their environment and depend on their land to grow their own ethnic food and medicinal plants. This made him realizes that he wanted to help his community to escape poverty and help them live in peace with their natural surroundings. Paul specifically wanted to find alternative ways for the local people to make a profit without selling their land.

In 2004, Paul Kilelu joined team with Philip Koitelel Pikaany and formed ICCAR. Philip is a devoted Christian with one wife and three children. He has been actively involved in fighting against poverty and gender inequality for many years. He is also a former United Nations Volunteer and was involved in assisting the government employee to address the increasing negative impact of HIV/AIDS epidemic in Kenya. With his hard work and determination, Philip has successfully built eighteen Ministerial AIDS control units formed to focus on government employee.

For over two decades, temperature warming is affecting the pastoralism Maa community. Through research and attending numerous conservation forums, Paul gained a lot of knowledge on this conservation approach. One of the highlight of the project was when Paul had the opportunity to travel to New York City to attend a forum at the United Nations headquarter. Paul learned a lot about effective ways to implement an environmental project by Government officials and people who worked in various non government organizations.

Afterward, Paul and Philip decided to help the community to adopt alternative livelihood compatible with range land conservation in order for them to cope with climate change. Paul and Philip started to work with various women groups and mixed community groups on sustainable livelihoods and environmental conservation.

The organization ICCAR focuses on using Eco-tourism, tourism that contributes to the protection of the environment, in their project in order to allow the local people to manage their land in a sustainable manner, as well as earn a reasonable income at the same time. ICCAR deals with community based Eco-tourism by linking conservation with livelihoods of the community.

While Paul and Philip were developing projects to help the powerless group to live in peace with the environment, they and their team members faced major challenges from the community and local politicians, as well as they lacked the funds to implement the project. But with the help of Jazz for Peace, a musical band, they were able to raise some money through musical fund-raising. Philip and Paul are very grateful to Rick Delarata, a band member of Jazz for Peace, for making the event a great success. Without their help, both men were not able to get any financial support for the organization. The project became popular to local people in the community and more men and women are seeking to be part of the project.

Currently Paul and his co-workers are busy with another project. They are developing a community garden to allow many local women to grow nutritious food and medicinal plants for themselves and their family members. The project also allows women to gain employment and enables them to be financially secure. Paul and his co-workers are seeking funding for the project and hopefully their plan can be implemented in the near future.

Paul feels that the environment is a serious issue in this society. He feels that many cooperation and powerful people degrade the environment for their own economic gains. The marginalized group suffers the consequences because they depend on the environment for their basic needs. As the environment continues to deteriote, the poor people will continue suffer from diseases, hunger, and illnesses, due to society's careless attitude toward the environment.

Due to the current environmental problem many people face daily in their lives, Paul strongly believes that there needs to an implementation of sustainable and conservation projects that serve at a local, national, and international level to assist the poor people to live in peace and dignity with their land. As more people become educated about the severe issue, they will realize the importance of environmental protection and make a conscious effort to not degrade the ecosystem. One way Paul believes people can fight for environmental protection is to volunteer at ICCAR. By helping the organization, they can fight against poverty, gender inequality, and environmental degradation. He is currently seeking volunteers at Nabuur to assist with his environmental projects. We are thrilled to have Paul as part the Nabuur community.