Environmental Crime Management in Kenya

Abstract

The objective of the study was to determine the effectiveness of environmental crime management in Kenya. Specifically, this included determination of factors affecting environmental crime management, causes of environmental crime, establishment of the nature and extent of environmental crime. All these assisted in understanding the effectiveness of environmental crime management in Kenya. Research questions which the study attempted to answer include what factors affect environmental crime management, the causes of environmental crime, the nature and the extent of environmental crime and the effectiveness of environmental crime management in Kenya. A conceptual framework was used to simplify the relationship between variables in the study. The relationship shows that environmental crime management in Kenya faces several challenges that in varied ways hinder proper environmental crime management. The methodology adopted during the study included desk top review of existing scholarly materials for secondary data and focused questionnaire tool for primary data. The respondents were also made aware of the purpose of the research and informed on how and when they will get feedback of the study. The questionnaire was administered to key respondents and their profiles captured so as to give a picture of their understanding of their background and input to the study. The study concludes that lack of understanding of the long term effects of environmental crimes among key stakeholders has led to crimes being treated as misdemeanors thus attracting low penalties if any, hence resulting in poor management of the crime. The study recommends that the process of enacting legislation on environmental crime should be all inclusive, adopting a wider consultative approach. The study encourages the strengthening of environmental crime management policies. At the moment environmental crime management is a loose concept with weak policy. Environmental crimes should be addressed by policy and legislation that ensures that local communities benefit from the country‘s natural resources so that they value and protect them. Environmental crime management should be greatly enhanced by improving the capacity of the environmental law enforcement officials and other stakeholders through training