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