Two suspects, one of them a police officer, were on Wednesday charged before a Naivasha court with illegal possession and trafficking of elephant tusks worth Sh2.9 million.
Dismus Mongari, a police officer attached at Suswa station, and Dennis Atuke were arrested by officers from Kenya Wildlife Service acting on intelligence at Governors area in Mai Mahiu. They were transporting 20 pieces of ivory weighing 29kg from Suswa to Nairobi.
Naivasha KWS senior warden Francis Mutuku said the suspects were intercepted by anti-poaching police while awaiting to board a matatu to Nairobi with the tusks in polythene bags.
The accused, who appeared before Naivasha principal magistrate Abdulqudir Ramadan, were charged with possessing and trafficking elephant tusks, classified as an endangered species needing special protection, without a permit from KWS.
They pleaded not guilty to the charges and were released on a bond of Sh1 million each pending the next hearing date scheduled for July 16, this year.
If found guilty, the two risk heavy penalties and lengthy jail terms thanks to the overhauled Kenya Wildlife Conservation Act of 2013, which stipulates a maximum fine of Sh20 million or life imprisonment for convicts.
The Act classifies the African Elephant as an endangered species due to poaching which threatened its existence, with Kenya having led the ban on game hunting to contain the vice.
In an earlier press release, KWS warden Mutuku decried increased poaching activities in the area, with Naivasha – Nakuru and Narok-Mai Mahiu highways being the major trafficking routes.
According to data from KWS, although the country has strengthened its anti-poaching laws to curb the menace, some unscrupulous traders continue to target endangered species for tusks and game meat.
The senior warden committed to strengthening surveillance systems in Naivasha to unearth the web of criminals who put as risk the numerous gains in the fight against poaching and trafficking of wildlife.
KWS statistics show that in the 1970s to early 1980s, Kenya’s elephant population was estimated at 170,000, which sharply declined to 16,000 by the end of 1989 due to worldwide demand for ivory.
Thanks to the government's continued interventions through legal and policy measures, the declining trend has been reversed resulting in the national elephant population increasing by more than five per cent to the current population of 36,000 by August last year.
