Jim Nyamu a Kenyan with flag in hand, has spent the past month crossing the north eastern United States on foot, stopping along the way to tell people how a growing demand for elephant ivory, especially in Asia, has caused an increase in poaching that could drive the elephant populations to extinction.
 
When asked about his choice of United States, Americans, Nyamu says, aren't aware of the severity of the problem.
 
 people ask me the question: '[Why should we as Americans] be bothered by the poaching which is happening?' “he says shortly after completing his 900-kilometer trek from Boston to Washington.”And I still say back to them that America is still the second leading consumer of ivory.”
 
Since his arrival in the nation's capital, where his visit has been timed to coincide with Friday's International March for Elephants — an event that includes simultaneous marches in about 30 cities around the world — he's been discussing the elephants' plight.
 
he says a primary challenge he encounters, is that people often admire products made from ivory without associating the items with the elephants' demise — that when poachers cut off the elephants' ivory tusks, the animals usually die.
 
The World Wildlife Fund says nearly 100 elephants are killed every day in Africa, illegally, by poachers.
 
“Over the past 10 years, they have lost about 50 percent of the elephants in the forests of Africa and, therefore, in the next 10 years, there is a potential that all forest elephants will be gone completely," he says. "That whole subspecies will be gone, leaving the savannah elephants only in the rest of eastern southern Africa.”
 
As for Jim Nyamu, his foot campaign to raise awareness about poaching will not end in Washington, as he has recently planned long walks on the West Coast of the United States and in China.