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The act has 14 parts and 11 schedules

Part I: Preliminary

Part one of the act introduces the law and define some key terms including game ranching, game farming,

The Principles of the Act are cited to include devolution, effective public participation, ecosystem approach, recognition of wildlife conservation and management as a form of land use on public, community and private land, self-sustainability (benefits from wildlife offset costs), sustainable utilization and equitable benefit sharing.

Part II: Kenya Wildlife Service

Part 2 of the act deals with the establishment of Kenya Wildlife Service. Some of the functions for KWS include:

• The conservation and management of national parks and sanctuaries in Kenya
• Establishing wildlife conservation committees in each county
• Developing the mechanisms of sharing benefits of wildlife conservation with communities
• Advise in the preparation of management plans for conservancies

The act lists a total of 19 functions of KWS

The service is managed by a Board of Trustees that includes the

chairperson (appointed by the president),

Principle Secretaries of matters of wildlife, finance and devolution

Inspector general of police

Four people appointed by the Cabinet Secretary (one from NGO, two from community conservancies, and one from private conservancies)

Part III: Matters finance

The primary source of funding for KWS is the national government. Other sources include investments and joint partnerships. The Board or Trustees are mandated to prepare estimates of revenue or expenditure for each year.

Part IV: Wildlife Regulation Mechanism

It specifies that each county in Kenya should have a County Wildlife Conservation and Compensation Committee. Each of the committee will consist of:

• a chairperson appointed by the Cabinet Secretary
• a rep of the county government;
• an agricultural officer
• a land use planning officer
• a livestock officer responsible
• the officer of the Service for the county, who shall be the secretary;
• four persons and nominated by the community wildlife associations
• a medical officer
• the officer in-charge (police)
• the county environment officer

Among the functions of the CWCCC is the establishment of wildlife user rights. The committee also should ensure that benefits from wildlife resources are distributed.

The committee could also invite members who do not have the voting powers.

Under section VI, issues of bioprospecting are outlined. Bioprospecting refers to searching for plants and animal species where medicine and other valuable compounds can be extracted. A bioprospecting licence can only be issued by the service.

Part V: Wildlife Endowment Fund

KWS establishes an endowment fund that is vested in Board of Trustees. The endowment fund receives money from parliament, investments, grants, and payment for ecosystems services (PES) schemes.

The functions of the endowment fund include:

• developing wildlife conservation initiative
• managing and restoring protected areas
• protecting threatened species and habitats
• supporting wildlife security operations;
• facilitating community-based wildlife initiatives

Under the section, the govern net of Kenya is supposed to establish a Wildlife Compensation Scheme. Funding sources for the scheme include the national government and other sources approved by the cabinet secretary.

The Wildlife Compensation Scheme covers human death or injury, or crop and property damage caused by livestock. The County Wildlife Conservation and Compensation Committee verifies the claims and submit recommendation to the cabinet secretary.

• Death- KES 5,000,000
• Injury causing permanent disability- KES 3,000,000
• Other injuries- Maximum of KES 2,000,000
• Damages to livestock and crops are paid at local market rates, as long as owner took reasonable measures to protect their livestock/crop

People unsatisfied with the award have 30 days to appeal to National Environment Tribunal and on a second appeal to the Environment and Land Court.

Part VI: Conservation Protection and Management

The section is consistent with the Environmental Management and Coordination Act and Water Act.

Sections 31 through to 38 define the procedures of declaring national parks, reserves, wetlands, marine conservation areas, and variation of boundaries.

Section 39 outlines the procedures of establishing community and private conservancies/sanctuaries. Any land with wildlife could establish a conservancy. Section 43 outlines the standards of management where the County Wildlife and Compensation Committees could submit recommendations to deregister conservancies.

Communities and individuals may establish community wildlife associations with blessings from County Wildlife Conservation and Compensation Committee. Associations work to facilitate conflict resolution and communal management of wildlife in a region.

Each national park, marine area, wildlife conservancy and sanctuary shall be managed according to a management plan. Developments shouldn’t be approved without the presence of a management plan.

Mining and quarrying in national parks is prohibited unless they are given consent by the state and the area does not contain endangered species, is not a critical wildlife habitat or an important water catchment.

A person may not carry out activity on a listed species (sixth Schedule) without the permit from the service.

Section 49 outlines how KWS can develop species recovery plans for listed species.

Part VII: Establishment of Wildlife Research and Training Institute

The act asserts that there should be a corporate institute called the Wildlife Research and Training Institute. The major purpose of the institute is to coordinate wildlife research in the country.

The institute is located in Naivasha and offers various diploma and certificate courses.

Any person undertaking research on wildlife in Kenya should obtain a permit from the institute. When a researcher is outside the country, they should have a sponsoring institution from the home country.

The institute is also tasked with developing an elaborative wildlife database according to the act. The database will use info from universities, research institutions and Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. The data should be made available to stakeholders and the general public. Section 62 further mentions that someone will require to pay a prescribed fee to access the data.

Part VIII: Conservation Orders Easement and Incentives

Part IX

Part X

Part XI

Part XII

Part XIII

Part XIV

Schedules

Schedule 1

Schedule 2

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