Justice for Wildlife
Kenya is considered as one of the world’s most notorious hotspots of poaching and hubs of trafficking in wildlife products of various species. In fact, Kenya is considered by the Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species as a country that does not meet all the legal requirements in the compliance with protection standards of wildlife under the convention and as such has a low response to wildlife crime. WildlifeDirect has a core mission of connecting people to their wildlife and nature and inspire them to value and act to preserve it. We believe that the only way we can achieve this is by advocating for transparency and accountability in how wildlife and environmental compliance laws are developed and enforced. We do this through our Legal Department which engages with all relevant wildlife law enforcement authorities in Kenya to strengthen their response to wildlife crime. It engages with these authorities through several targeted activities.
Eyes in the Courtroom
Data Collection
Tracking Cases
Capacity Building
Maintaining presence in courtrooms to report on outcomes of wildlife crime cases.
Visiting Registries, and archives of Courts of Law to retrieve files & collect data.
Keeping an eye on cases as they progress through the criminal trial process.
Training rangers, prosecutors, and judges on best practices of handling wildlife crime cases
WildlifeDirect announces the release of a new report showcasing the state of wildlife crime cases in Kenya
WildlifeDirect announces the release of a new report showcasing the state of wildlife crime cases in Kenya. WildlifeDirect has been monitoring wildlife crime cases in Kenyan courts since 2008. Through Eyes in the Courtroom project; we provide the only nation-wide publicly available review of Kenya’s wildlife law enforcement response.
Convicted Ivory Kingpin Set Free
A High Court Judge set free a convicted ivory trafficker, Feisal Ali Mohammed, who was serving a 20 year sentence and a penalty fine of 20 million shillings (USD 200,000). Feisal had already served two years of his sentence after being found guilty of trafficking in 2,152 kilograms of elephant ivory before the High Court reversed his conviction and sentence.
Wildlife Traffickers – Untouchables
There are three Kenyans on INTERPOL’s worlds’ most wanted criminal list. They are not terrorists with ties to Al Shabaab or ISIS, neither are they drug traffickers. They are not even human traffickers or illegal arms dealers. They are all elephant ivory traffickers.
MADE POSSIBLE BY
The Eyes in the Courtroom Program is a partnership between WildlifeDirect and the Judiciary Training Institute, and is generously supported by Wildlife Conservation Network’s Elephant Crisis Fund (ECF), Save The Elephants, Whitley Segre Foundation, Cedar Hill Foundation, Straus Family Foundation and the Elephant Crisis Fund.
