WILDLIFE

When inspirational former Daily Mirror editor Peter Willis instructed me to secure an interview with an ivory poacher it seemed like one of the near-impossible tasks he regularly demanded. Tracking down convicted wildlife criminal John Sumokwo in the Kenyan town of Kabarnet proved arduous, with multiple false starts, but – as was usually the case with Peter’s ideas – eventually very worthwhile. From this interview, I became fascinated by people who devote their lives to saving endangered species, as well as those who kill these animals just to feed their families, a topic which John himself now teaches children about in the very Kenyan villages from which he set out to slay elephants.