Introducing the 2025 Ekko Fellows

We are so delighted to introduce you to our 2025 Ekko Fellows. After receiving more than 50 applications from masters students around Kenya, we narrowed the pool to a shortlist of seven applicants. Among those, a set of three generous external judges selected our final awardees. Our fellows receive cash support grants of KES 200,000 to help them complete their fieldwork as well as advisory support from our team, in collaboration with their academic advisors.

Our 2025 Fellows are Stella Wandera and Anthony Wanjala. Stella is a passionate officer at Kenya Fisheries and is currently working towards a masters in environmental science at Kenyatta University. She will be studying the fishing practices of artisanal fishers in Kwale County, trying to understand how well current sustainability policies are working and how they might be better designed and implemented. On the opposite side of the country, Anthony Wanjala, a biotechnologist and student of public health at Masinde Muliro University, will be studying the drivers of malaria vaccine uptake and attrition in Kakamega.

We had our first meeting with Stella and Anthony yesterday, making us even more excited about their work. Both of them chose topics about which they are passionate and where their work has real world applications.

Anthony was thrilled when the malaria vaccine Mosquirix was introduced in malaria endemic parts of Kenya providing hope to reduce malaria related mortality in the country. But then he learned that uptake was relatively low, even in towns, where one might expect parents have more access to information and relatively close proximity to health centres. Further, those who were getting vaccines for their children were often not completing the four-dose series. Through his research, he wants to understand why and help ensure more children benefit from the protection conferred by these new vaccines.

After several years as a fisheries office in Kenya, Stella has seen progress made in ensuring regulatory compliance of commercial fishing operators, but worries that gaps in enforcement of artisanal fishing practices may be causing significant degradation of fish stocks, inhibiting efforts to ensure sustainability in the sector. Her work will understand what practices artisanal fishers are using and why, how they think about sustainability, and how current regulations are or are not affecting their practices. She hopes to offer insights that may lead to more effective policies supporting sustainable fishing on the Kenyan coast.

We are thrilled to be working with Stella and Anthony and look forward to sharing more from their work here later this year. Stay tuned!