GATU MBARIA ; CO-AUTHOR THE BIG CONSERVATION LIE

Gatu Mbaria
Journalist/Author/Land Use Planner
I am an author, land use planner and Journalist. I hold a Masters of Planning Degree from the University of Nairobi and has taken several specialized training courses on journalism in Kenya, Austria and Poland. I started off as a Physical Planner in the 1990s but detoured to journalism in early 2000s. I have worked for several national newspapers in Kenya including The People Daily, Daily Nation and The East African, -itself a regional weekly read in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. I have also been an occasional contributor to the Mail & the Guardian; Greenpeace Magazine of Germany, New African (published in London) as well as a Visiting Writer with the Investigate West, a US-based investigative Online Journal. I have been an investigative reporter on wildlife conservation, human rights issues, land issues, nexus between environmental destruction and poverty, agriculture and tourism as practiced in East Africa. In the process, I have earned a number of local and international media awards. Besides this, I worked as the Managing Editor of the animal welfare magazine between 2011 and September 2014; a magazine that pioneered coverage of animal welfare issues in the Eastern Africa region. Further, I have been the consultant editor with Planning Future, the official magazine of the Kenya Institute of Planners (KIP). Currently, I double up as a Freelance Journalist, an Author (I co-authored the Book; The Big Conservation Lie; The Untold Story of Wildlife Conservation in Kenya with Dr. Mordecai Ogada in 2016) and a Consultant on Land Use, Environmental Planning besides working as a consultant writer with several UN bodies (i.e. UNEP, UNDP & UN-Habitat, GEF-Small Grants Programme), World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), ICRISAT and several local and international NGOs.
Although this diversified experience has exposed me to what ails ‘development’ in Africa, my first love is writing.