Rodah Ogoma was a recipient of our International Advocates Animal Law LLM Scholarship. Rodah has been involved in criminal justice in Kenya since 2001. Upon completing her degree, Rodah returned to her position as a prosecutor in Kenya’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP). At ODPP, Rodah was previously responsible for The Wildlife Crimes Division and domestic animal prosecutions under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. She has been at the forefront of Wildlife Conservation in Kenya where she contributed to the review and amendment of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act and the establishment of a multi-agency forum for wildlife protection with its roadmap and curriculum for capacity building. She championed the development of a Wildlife Crimes Rapid Reference Guide for Prosecutors and Investigators alongside the Standard Operating Procedures. She has also been instrumental in supporting the wildlife protection conversation in the East Africa Region (Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania Uganda, and South Sudan) and in Botswana through awareness creation and capacity building.
In 2016, she served as Legal Adviser to the Head of Delegation of Kenya to the Conference of Parties (CoP17) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of World Fauna and Flora (CITES). She represented various countries and NGOs in moving a proposal to heighten efforts in the fight against Wildlife Cybercrime and also served on the challenging Committee on the National Legislation Process.
Rodah’s passion has always been criminal justice and she began her career in the Attorney General’s Chambers in Nairobi and later relocated to the ODDP. Through her position in the ODPP, Rodah saw that not enough was being done with regard to the welfare of animals in terms of their basic needs and decided to pursue the study of Animal Law.