How to stem crimes against environment

The death penalty awaits all Kenyans who commit certain crimes like robbery with violence. But it is not always clear what awaits those who commit environmental crimes. UNEP defines environmental crime as ‘illegal activities harming the environment and aimed at benefiting individuals or groups or companies from the exploitation of, damage to, trade or theft of natural resources, including serious crimes and transnational organised crime.’

Nairobi River has been a major culprit of environmental crimes. Once fresh and free flowing, it is now a hapless cesspit of both industrial and domestic waste. Ngong River and Mathare River, the two other rivers that form the Nairobi River Basin are also chronically polluted. Those who discharge waste into these rivers commit environmental crimes that must be duly punished because they cause illness not just to the river but also to urban riverine communities.