To the south of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, lives one of the brightest young minds you’ve ever met. 13 year old boy, Richard Turere.
Richard and his family live in an area bordering the national park, a natural area where several species live, including lions. Living so close to this place has its disadvantages, among them, that the lions can cross the border to visit the ranches belonging to humans.
These outings cause a lot of reduction in numbers of livestock and have affected the food and finances of several families, including the Tureres.
It isn’t the first time this has occurred, in fact, it’s part of the history of the area: living in fear of nighttime visits from the feline predators. Several neighbors have taken the decision to kill them to prevent their livestock being massacred. However, killing the lions damages on one of the main sources of tourism in the country.
It turns out that the main attraction for ecological and cultural tourism in the National Park of Nairobi, the only one of its kind in the world. Nairobi works like one big safari, where people can live surrounded by nature: zebras, rhinos and lions become eccentric passers-by in this African city. Killing them means taking away the main attraction for foreign visitors.
What to do? This boy came up with a way of keeping the lions away from the ranch without killing them. About two years ago, Turere was walking around the ranch when he realized that the lions were scared of the flashlights. They left and didn’t cross the border when they saw the flashing light. So, he thought: why not create an automatic system of lights which flash to keep them away? So, he did it.
Turere says that: “I grew up hating lions a lot. They tended to come at night and feed on our livestock when we were sleeping”. However, the hatred didn’t lead him to killing the lions, but creating a fencing barrier which would allow everybody to live in peace.
So, he created a system he called “Lion lights”. His creation consisted of putting flashing lights around the border of his ranch, pointing directly at the border of the lions’ territory. Turere put LED lights around his family’s cattle shed, connected them to the flashing lights of a car, and powered the system with car batteries charged by a solar panel.
His success was immediate: the nighttime attacks dropped, almost disappearing totally. His neighbors, amazed at his genius, asked him for help. Turere installed at least 7 more systems in other neighboring ranches.
Today, his invention has been patented and is known as “Lion lights”. His genius and creativity have been recognized by several organizations, encouraging his education to stimulate his intelligence.
