(Posted 27th November 2023)
Courtesy of African Elephant News / Stenews and Cyndy Aluoch, The Star
The Kenyan government has declared the ivory and rhino trophies in its possession as per the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
CITES is an international agreement between governments that aims to ensure international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten the survival of the species.
Kenya like all other signatories to CITES is obligated to declare how it intends to destroy the ivory and Rhino horns.
In a gazette notice dated November 20th, Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua said Kenya has a total of 20,737 pieces of elephant ivory.
He said the consignment weighs in at 98,753.35 kilograms.
He said there are 506 pieces of Rhino horns weighing 1,125.75 kilograms.
“Pursuant to section 83(3) of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act 2013, it is notified for public information following the audit of government trophies in the year 2022, the inventory of trophies as at December 31, 2022 is 20,737 pieces of elephant ivory weighing 98,753.35 kilos,” the gazette notice reads in part.
CS Mutua said the comprehensive audit report and inventory is available at the office of the Director General, Kenya Wildlife service headquarters.
Kenya has already declared war against ivory trade but acts of poaching continue to be witnessed despite stringent measures in place to address the menace.
As part of the effort, two suspected poachers were on November 23rd arrested while trying to sell three pieces of elephant tusks valued at Sh1 million in Lodwar, Turkana County.
The men were carrying the tusks weighing about 9.8 kilograms when they were intercepted by police and officers from the Kenya Wildlife Service.
There is an ongoing campaign to fight the menace in various regions.
A new report early this year showed that 906 kilograms of elephant ivory were confiscated from traffickers in the greater Amboseli last year.
It, however, said there was no elephant poached in the greater Amboseli last year.
This means the confiscated ivory might have been from other areas or even countries.
Meanwhile during that period, ten jumbos died as a result of human-elephant conflict, 17 from natural causes, 13 from unknown but suspected to be natural causes and three from human-related causes.
All the ivory from jumbos that died was recovered while seven elephants were rescued.
The report noted that the Eastern Black Rhino is in dire straits.
“Poachers have decimated the population, which plummeted from about 100,000 animals in 1960 to just over 6,000 in 2021.”
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