Shamini Jayanathan

Shamini Jayanathan OBE

“Shamini has been instrumental in building criminal justice capacity in Kenya, bringing with her a wealth of trial expertise and understanding of the challenges of prosecution and trial of serious crime.”

Former Attorney General of Kenya, Professor Githu Mugai

Education

Bachelor of Laws LLB

Memberships

Bar Council, UK
International bar Association

Languages

English

Overview of Practice

Shamini Jayanathan is the Director of Arcturus Consultancy Ltd, based in Nairobi, Kenya. Following nearly 16 years practice as a criminal barrister in the UK, she moved into rule of law capacity building across Africa and Asia. For over three years she focused on building legislative, prosecutorial and judicial capacity within the sphere of counter-terrorism in Kenya, Somalia and Somaliland before advising governments, the United Nations and other organisations in the design and implementation of criminal justice solutions to illegal wildlife trafficking. Shamini initiated a scheme to extrapolate the banking sectors’ ‘know your customer’ framework to the import/export sector in Kenya – the first of its kind in Africa. She has delivered UK-based charging standards for prosecutions and criminal procedure rules across numerous African jurisdictions and her interventions in the field of wildlife trafficking are being replicated globally.

Publications

Combatting Wildlife Crime Case Study Compilation, USAID 2018

Analysis of Wildlife Crime Prosecutions, Zimbabwe and Namibia 2019, EU.

Analysis of Wildlife Crime Prosecutions, Kenya 2018, Space for Giants

Analysis of Wildlife Crime Prosecutions, Botswana 2012 to 2016, Space for Giants Model Sentencing Guidelines for Wildlife and Forestry Crime, Stop Ivory, Space for Giants, ICCF Group 2017

Guidance on Prosecution Services and the Decision to Charge, Stop Ivory, Space for Giants, ICCF Group 2017

Guidance on Identification Evidence, Stop Ivory, Space for Giants, ICCF Group 2017

Guidance on Drafting Wildlife Crime Offences, Stop Ivory, Space for Giants, ICCF Group 2017

Conducting Court Surveys in Wildlife Crime – A Guidance, Stop Ivory, Space for Giants, ICCF Group 2017

Stopping poaching and wildlife trafficking through strengthened laws and improved application, Stop Ivory and ICCF Group, April 2016.

Scoping Study on the Prosecution of Wildlife Related Crime in the Kenyan Courts 2008 to 2013, Wildlife Direct, Kenya, published 2014.

Outcome of Court Trials in the First Two Years of Implementation of the Wildlife Conservation Management Act 2013, Wildlife Direct, 2016.

Press

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