Kenya mulls law to combat wildlife cyber crime by end of year

Kenya plans to have a law to combat wildlife cyber crime by end of the year, officials said on Monday.

Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Permanent Secretary Margaret Mwakima told Xinhua in Nairobi that a draft bill is currently in Parliament for debate.

"Once the law is in place it will enhance government efforts to tackle illegal trade of wildlife products," Mwakima said.

"With increased law enforcement pressure on normal ways of committing wildlife crime, traffickers are now taking advantage of cyber space which is less regulated," she said on the sidelines of the national stakeholders' briefing session on Kenya's preparations for the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting to be held next month in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The PS noted that wildlife traffickers are moving activities online due to the existing legal loopholes in the wildlife laws.

"The new law will provide clarity so that those who engage in online trade of illegal wildlife products are easily convicted," she said.

Mwakima said that cyberspace provides anonymity to those engaged in illegal wildlife trade and so it becomes difficult to determine where the wildlife species are originally from. Endit