The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) announced last week that it had made Soila Sayialel an Honourary Warden for Amboseli National Park. Soila is Project Manager for the Amboseli Elephant Research Project (AERP). The announcement is a fitting acknowledgment of the tremendous efforts that Soila and her sister teammates, Norah Njiraini and Katito Sayialel, expend to keep the Park a safe ecosystem core for elephants and other wildlife.

Soila celebrated her twentieth year with AERP in 2006. She is an ATE Trustee and the main force behind the very successful Consolation Scheme. Apart from her work for ATE with the elephants, Soila serves on a number of KWS and stakeholder committees and boards throughout the ecosystem. She is a member of the Board of the Amboseli/Tsavo Game Scouts Association and a nominated Trustee of the newly-formulated Amboseli Ecosystem Trust. She has been ATE's representative on the on-going process of formulating an Amboseli ecosystem General Management Plan and She has been a prime mover in the Amboseli Lion Conservation Fund.

Soila was born in Oloitokitok and is thus a true 'daughter of the soil' of the Amboseli ecosystem. She is one of the first woman members of the Olgulului/Ololarrashi Group Ranch. She is known and respected by all throughout the district.

Well done, Soila! Your colleagues are proud of you!