US Interior Secretary Sally Jewell held a three day visit in Kenya as part of her three-nation tour of Africa to address wildlife trafficking and assess the conservation efforts in the country.
Her Kenyan tour resulted to the signing of a long term Memorandum of Understanding that will aid the country’s wildlife service to minimise poaching and illegal logging by improving security surveillance at ports of entry and purchase better surveillance equipment.
The Memorandum of Understanding on National Conservation and Management between the US Department of Interior and USAID, and Kenya’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, fosters improved technology, training wildlife rangers and information sharing as the best tools to counter the menace.
The agreement is also expected to boost the operations of the forensic laboratory at the Kenya Wildlife Service, built last year at a cost of Sh14 million ($140, 000), to provide genetic testing of confiscated trophy.
Kenya amended its anti-poaching laws in 2014 to toughen punishment and the establishment of the forensic lab–which KWS says has facilitated in the prosecution of two poachers.
The MOU is expected to go a long way in protecting the estimated 1,030 rhinos and 38,000 elephants left in Kenya today.
Conservationists have warned poaching could wipe the endangered species out within a decade if the vice is unchecked.
