I found joy in activism – meet Peter Moll, an award winning conservationist, governance champion

At 28, Peter Fredrick Moll, is an award winning conservation and governance champion. His brother, Michael Graham Moll tells us why it has been difficult to ignore him.

Harriet James @harriet86jim

Peter Fredrick Moll’s first time in America was not an ecstatic one. He had gone to bury his elder sister, Thailla Ramirez Moll in 2012 who had died in the American Army.  

“When our sister passed away, we flew to Washington DC for the funeral. I remember as we walked in the streets of DC, Peter saw a statue of Martin Luther King.

At this moment, Peter had the realisation that leaders are not born, they are made. That there are men who stand and lead and those who just sit.

This insight at such a tough time ignited his leadership skills in him,” says Michael Graham Moll his brother.

Today, the 28-year-old is the founder and president of a youth organisation called Stand Up Shout Out. 

The organisation aims at giving the youth a voice to speak against the ills and injustices in our society as well as helping youths give back to the community and use their talents to do positive things.

Peter is the head of youth section and mobiliser of the campaign, Hands off our Elephants and one of the founders of Elephants for Kenya – Stop The Slaughter.

He is also the project director of the National Kenyan Model United Nations.

Young winner

Through Stand Up Shout Out, Peter has managed to fight for good governance, poverty reduction, youth inclusion as well as conservation.

He has won several awards at his young age and also received recognition from First Lady Margaret Kenyatta. 

Another great moment was in August 2019, when he was part of the government delegation as the second youth representative ever at the conference of International Trade on Engendered Species, which is the oldest UN convention. 

In addition, he won top 35 under 35 on the National and Diversity Inclusion Award Youth and Leadership 2019.

Peter recently won an award as Youth of The Year 2020 in environmental conservation advocacy.

“He deserved the award. The award gave him credibility boost. This will also open many doors for partnership and collaboration and probably even funding and resources,” says Michael.

Michael recalls how Peter began to show his leadership skills in his childhood. He describes this fourth born in a family of five as a happy child whose charm was infectious. 

They were raised by their grandparents as their mother had travelled abroad in search of greener pastures when Peter was just four years old.

(Peter is named after his grandfather Peter Graham Moll, a Briton who came to Kenya in the 1960. His late grandmother, Nancy Gacheke Moll  was a mix of Maasai  and Kikuyu)

Public speaker

Peter’s grandparents enhanced his creativity by encouraging outdoor play. In addition, their grandparents too were leaders and this also sharpened his leadership skills— his late grandmother was a community leader in Ngong.  

In his primary and secondary school years at Braeburn from 1995 to 2006, he engaged in a lot of sports activities and this developed interpersonal relations skills, public speaking as well as teamwork. 

“Peter is a public speaker. He began with Model United Nations in high school where he won awards for his debate skills.

Model United Nations is a world-renowned programme in which students role-play delegates representing member states of the United Nations.

His public speaking skills paved way for Peter to travel to Rome as a delegate to the real UN Conference on the environment in Rome.

Most notably earlier in March 2020 Peter was invited to the UN headquarters in New York to give a speech on World Wildlife Day,” says his brother

At the centre of it all, the activist desires to put young people at the forefront in shaping the future and also offer solution to the society. 

Yearning for recognition

This path of youth advocacy was, however, tough during his first years, as he really desired that his work be recognised.

He later realised that it’s by focussing in work that recognition comes. Another test was being overlooked by because of his age.

As his brother admits, this greatly took a toll on the young Peter, but he learnt how to work on his self-esteem when dealing with people who look down on him. 

“Peter learnt that for one to be respected, you have to be so good that they can’t ignore you. You have to let your work speak for itself,” his brother says.

Currently, Stand Up Shout Out has chapters in over 20 countries empowering and activating youth around the world to do good and serve their communities. 

“In future, he sees a strong consortium of youth in Africa empowered, trained, equipped and ready youths to build capacities of governance in Africa to secure the future.

He sees himself fighting for spaces for youths in government in leadership and conservation, creating green manifestos for political alliances,” Michael says.