For more than three decades, Laikipia Wildlife Forum (LWF) has held onto one vision: a productive, healthy Upper Ewaso landscape where livelihoods and wildlife can both thrive. Over those thirty years the landscape has changed around us, through climate change, shifting land use, and more intense human-wildlife conflict, but LWF has stayed rooted in the same work: nurturing and partnering with organisations championing wildlife conservation and sustainable natural resource management across the greater Laikipia landscape.
We marked this milestone at the second edition of the Laikipia Wildlife and Tourism Expo, held on 29 and 30 May 2026 at The Cedar Mall, Nanyuki. The expo carried LWF’s mission under the theme “Honouring 30 Years of Conservation and Resilience Across the Greater Laikipia Landscape,” touching on our core focus areas: wildlife, water, tourism, rangeland management, land use, and conservation education.
Mohamed Shibia, LWF Executive Director; Dr. Romano Kiome, Chair of the LWF Board; and Gilbert Mutembei, LTA Chairman, engage the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy team at their booth.
Dr. Romano Kiome, Chairman of the LWF Board; Mohamed Shibia, LWF Executive Director; and Gilbert Mutembei, Chairman of the Laikipia Tourism Association (LTA), officially opened the exhibition. In their remarks, they welcomed exhibitors and encouraged visitors to walk the booths and learn more about conservation, tourism, hospitality, and community development happening across the region.
Building on last year’s inaugural edition, the 2026 expo grew into a two-day event, giving exhibitors and visitors more room for networking, collaboration, and knowledge exchange. Government agencies, conservation organisations, community groups, conservancies, hotels, restaurants, tour operators, learning institutions, and corporates all set up booths, a reminder of just how many different players have a stake in wildlife conservation.
Attendees visit the Kenya Wildlife Service booth to learn more about wildlife conservation.
The Laikipia Tourism Association used the expo to spotlight Northern Kenya as a tourist destination, bringing tourism and hospitality businesses together to show off their services. The event also gave space to women-led conservation initiatives, including the Grevy’s Zebra Scouts, whose members walked chief guests through the data collection work happening in community conservancies. Over the two days, the expo drew more than 50 exhibitors and over 400 visitors, plenty of room for new partnerships to take shape.
Members of the Grevy’s Zebra Scouts explain the data collection procedures used in community conservancies to the chief guests.
For young people curious about where a career in conservation, tourism, or hospitality might lead, the expo offered a rare close-up look. Exhibitors travelled from Laikipia, Isiolo, Samburu, Nakuru, Meru, Nyeri, and Nairobi counties, each making the same point in a different way: conservation and tourism aren’t side interests. They are how a lot of people in this region make a living, and how the country builds its economy.
The Wildlife Research and Training Institute (WRTI) team explains the courses offered at the Institute to visitors.
Community-based organisations brought their own energy to the exhibition, showing how ecotourism, innovation, and value addition are strengthening grassroots economies. Local groups displayed products made from sustainably sourced natural resources, giving them a rare chance to meet buyers directly and tell their own conservation stories, including Dunia Bora, whose founder, Mr. Muhoro, walked visitors through a line of drinks made from the invasive cactus Opuntia stricta.
Mr. Muhoro, founder of Dunia Bora, shows attendees products made from the invasive cactus Opuntia stricta.
LWF is grateful to our sponsors, the African Agency for Arid Resources (AGAR) and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), whose support made the expo possible, and to every exhibitor, partner, and visitor who showed up and made it worthwhile. As we mark 30 years of conservation and resilience, we remain committed to deepening collaboration across the greater Laikipia landscape, and the feedback from this year’s expo will shape how we build the next one.
