[Photo/kws.org]

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The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) plans to increase the number of specialist wildlife crime prosecutors in a new unit that will be joined by a leading authority in international criminal networks and the illegal wildlife trade.

KWS’s Specialist Prosecutions Unit is expected to expand from two to 14 prosecutors following extensive training carried out by experts from Kenya-based conservation charity Space for Giants, and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

This surge in the number of experts trained on how to use the full force of Kenya’s fierce new Wildlife Conservation and Management Act will strike further fear into the hearts of poachers and wildlife criminals.

Julius Kimani, KWS’s Acting Director General, and Max Graham, Space for Giants’ CEO, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) bringing the organisations’ legal experts together to increase the number of successful trials.

Shamini Jayanathan, Space for Giants’ Director of Wildlife Law and Justice, will support KWS to ensure world-class legal expertise is brought to bear upon Kenya’s fight against poaching and the illegal wildlife trade.

“While we have put in place policies, mechanisms and structures to deal with the menace of poaching and illegal trade in wildlife and their products, our efforts will not succeed unless we join hands with stakeholders in tackling these challenges,” said Mr Kimani. “We all owe ourselves a duty to ensure that anything that threatens the wellbeing of wildlife is confronted and defeated.”

He added: “KWS cannot on its own win this war, rather, our collective effort is the surest way to deal with perpetrators of wildlife crime. We have started witnessing the fruits of the new Wildlife Conservation and Management Act in confronting poaching of wildlife, especially rhino and elephants, hence stemming threats of the two species extinction.”

The MOU, signed today at the wildlife service’s Langata HQ in Nairobi, sets out a series of steps that Space for Giants will undertake to support KWS prosecutions. They included: