Assesment Of The Factors That Have Led To Increased Poaching Activities In Kenya

Abstract

With the key focus on the case of Kenya‟s increased poaching activities, this study broadly sought to examine the main factors that have exacerbated poaching. The study was guided by three objectives namely: to investigate the catalysts to the increased poaching in Kenya, to examine the effectiveness of multi-agencies strategies to counter poaching activities in Kenya and to evaluate the implications of poaching activities in Kenya. The study has noted that the most key catalyst to poaching is the presence of international market with a very high purchasing power of poached wildlife products. The study noted that rhino horns and elephant horns fetch a lot of money in the international black market. This is as a result high cultural value attached to the usefulness of the rhino horns and ivory to the final consumer as well as the huge gap between demand and supply of the poached products. Apart from the presence of international market, other catalysts to poaching in Kenya include; socioeconomic factors such as poverty, corruption and unemployment. The concept of multiagency is still new and due to multidisciplinary nature, it has a lot of complexity especially due to different operating procedure of agencies. The study has specifically noted that, there is poor coordination among the multi-agencies components since they come from different units. For instance, the multi-agencies involve the KWS, (GSU), (AP), regular police, (NIS) and criminal investigation department which have different doctrine of operation and sometimes having different command. At strategic level, the multiagency has clear operating procedure and guidelines, however, the problem is at tactical level because the multiagency has not been well harmonized together to operate as one body. Based on the third objective, the study has established that, poaching has far reaching implications that spread across the nation, region and internationally. Among the implications to poaching, the study has found that tourism sector is most affected sector by poaching of wildlife. This is because wildlife stands out to be the single most tourist attraction factor, therefore, poaching means wildlife and especially the big four which attract tourists will decrease and this will eventually decrease the number of tourists in Kenya. Tourism contributes about 12% of GDP of Kenya and provides employment to more than 500,000 people. This elevates tourism to one of the major economic sectors in Kenya that contribute towards realization of vision 2030