A light in the dark of human-wildlife conflict

From as young as he can remember, Turere always loved making things, and his innovations put him on a collision course with his parents.

“I broke a lot of stuff in the process: the family TV, radios, basically anything I didn't understand how exactly it worked, I would help myself to it,” says Richard Turere, 24.

Turere recently won the Young Inventors Prize at the prestigious European Inventor Award 2023 in Valencia, Spain, beating three other contenders. He says the sky is the limit. 

“This is the first award I have ever won in my life, and I am a proud Kenyan in my journey that started when I was 11 years old,” Turere told the Star from Valencia.

At the age of 11, young Turere invented 'Lion Lights', an elegant way to ward off lions and other predators from livestock using light sequences. 

A seemingly small step taken in a remote village in Kitengela by a young boy to solve a problem is now benefiting ranchers as far as Zimbabwe, Argentina and many other places across the globe. 

He says the value of an idea lies in the use of it. 

THE INSPIRATION

Young Turere was frustrated by the lions attacking his family's cattle, so he decided to do something about it. 

Working with bits and pieces of wire, an old car battery and a broken flashlight, he created blinking lights that frightened prowling lions from their farm near Nairobi National Park.

His noble idea to protect his community's livestock without harming the endangered lions has captured many hearts and minds around the world.  

The humble idea has now attracted a global invention award of more than Sh3 million, and many more accolades.  

On being declared the winner of the 2023 Young Inventors Prize, which was organised by the European Patent Office, Turere said the win is for Kenya and Africa.

Turere had been nominated along with another man who designed a machine for removing microplastics from water, and a woman who designed a robot for impaired children.

His innovation, born from a local problem to becoming a global solution, Lion Lights won the first prize in the event.

Lion Lights, Turere says, are proudly standing guard in Argentina, assisting ranchers in protecting their flocks.

Kajiado Governor Joseph Ole Lenku echoed the view that Turere’s win is one for the country and continent as well.

“In Kajiado, we are super proud of our very own son, Turere. We are congratulating him,” Lenku said.

Talking to the Star, a lively Turere said, “ My mum says I am just a troublesome child. But she understands my curiosity. My dad, on the other hand, is a very serious gentleman.”

Adding, “My father had one rule: just don’t touch my car. Okay, he didn't use the eff word, but that man loves his car, I know, so I would never even dream about experimenting with it.”

Turere always compares innovating to writing music, adding that in innovation, one spends a lot of time alone, always thinking, writing down concepts and most of the time taking a lot of options.

“Everything about innovating is testing and failing. You have this brilliant idea in your head, you can’t sleep thinking about it, you decide to dedicate some time to it, like 3,000 hrs. And then it just finds the perfect way of breaking your heart by choosing not to actualise,” he said. 

DESTINED?

But Turere says jovially that as an innovator, “these things are meant to happen”.

“So after three or so years of skipped tomorrows, you finally have this album. And you are ready to present it to the world,” he said.

“But to your surprise, only one of the songs on your ‘album’, if you are lucky, becomes a hit.”

He says Lion Lights was that song in his ‘album’ that became the hit song, and surprisingly, he says it became a global hit.

Turere said he is a massive fan of his hit and wishes he had named it after himself.

“Who would have thought that an ordinary Maasai boy could create a hit for the world? You should never accept to be ordinary, you can be who you want to be,” Turere finally said.

Having been brought up in Kitengela, near the southern side of Nairobi National Park, it is normal to have encounters with wild animals straying from the park. 

Predators, including lions, hyenas, leopards and cheetahs often invade the human-inhabited areas to prey on their livestock. 

Despite their efforts to live harmoniously with wildlife, one danger kept disrupting their lives: lions. 

“One day, lions killed nine of my cows in a week, and I had to find a solution to end this cycle as we Maa people value our livestock so much,” Turere says.

Whenever lions strayed into human-inhabited areas, they often ended up being killed. This trend was severely affecting their population. 

According to Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), the lion population has declined by 43 per cent in the past 20 years. 

The Kenyan government has been making efforts to reduce the number of lion killings by financially compensating farmers whose animals were killed, but it became a costly and unsustainable affair.

Turere’s solution helped to keep both his family’s livestock and the lions safe.

ABOUT THE PRIZE

The Young Inventors Prize recognises initiatives developed by young inventors (aged 30 and under).

Open to innovators worldwide, the prize celebrates solutions that work towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. 

A granted European patent is not a prerequisite, and the winner is rewarded with EUR 20,000. The second and third-placed finalists receive EUR10, 000 and EUR 5,000 respectively.

Turere, who has now founded his organisation, won the first prize, which the European Patent Office established to inspire the next generation of inventors.

The prize recognises young innovators aged 30 or under who have developed technological solutions to tackle global problems and help reach the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

His invention promotes SDG Goal 15 of life on the land, which includes protecting, restoring and promoting sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems.

Turere hopes his innovation will inspire the next generation to co-exist peacefully with wildlife.