Wardens from the Kenya Wildlife Service and Kenya Forest Service show off their anti-poaching skills after a two-day training by the British Army Training Unit Kenya BATUK at Mt. Kenya forest on December 5, 2013.
Punitive laws, strict enforcement and the closure of ivory markets in China are credited with the reduced poaching of iconic wildlife species in Kenya and the trafficking of illegal wildlife products through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and the Port of Mombasa, experts say.
TRAFFIC, an international wildlife trade monitoring network, however, warns that insecure countries in the region remain vulnerable to poaching and wildlife trafficking.
“When landscapes are plagued by civil unrest, insecurity, the proliferation of illegal firearms and poor law enforcement, wildlife trafficking becomes a side hustle for insurgents because it is a low-risk, high-return enterprise,” says Dr Taye Teferi, TRAFFIC International Senior Regional Director for Africa.
In the past, the Port of Mombasa was a notorious exit point for wildlife contraband from Eastern Africa, a case in point being the June 5, 2014, seizure of 2,152 kilos of ivory.
Such seizures are, however, no longer the norm. KWS records indicate that one trafficker was arrested at the Port of Mombasa in 2022, compared to 41 in 2016.
Stricter laws, sniffer dogs and the multiagency training of customs, security and judicial personnel have made Kenyan ports and international airports a no-go for traffickers.
The amended Wildlife Conservation and Management Act of 2013 has played a pivotal role in reducing wildlife crime by spelling out deterrent penalties and expanding the functions of KWS to combat poaching and trafficking, says African Wildlife Fund Director for Counter Wildlife Trafficking, Didi Wamukoya, a former KWS official.
“The new Act embedded in law anti-poaching operations, wildlife protection, intelligence gathering, investigations, and the establishing of forensic laboratories which are crucial for linking offenders to seizures and scenes of crime for conviction,” Didi says.
“Training magistrates to regard wildlife crime as a menace to community and national interests was also a masterstroke. Judicial officers now treat poaching and trafficking cases with the seriousness they deserve.”
These efforts notwithstanding, wildlife trafficking persists in Kenya. Since January 2024, the global Wildlife Trade Portal has recorded 55 incidents involving poaching and the trafficking of ivory, rhino horn, assorted live animals and wildlife products.
One such incident involved the arrest of a police officer and an accomplice in Molo, Rift Valley, on a motorbike. Detectives seized a Kenya police-issue CZ EVO 3 scorpion rifle, 30 bullets and five elephant tusks weighing 10 kilos from the suspects – highlighting the challenges posed by corruption, collusion of security agents and the tricks traffickers are adopting to evade law enforcement.
Police display elephant tusks that were seized at Mahiga area in Laikipia West, Kenya on May 24, 2023.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Such tricks, Teferi says, include the use of motorcycles or boda boda taxis to circumvent police checkpoints, concealing rhino horn pieces beneath motorcycle seats, processing the horn into beads that are worn around the neck and smuggled across security checkpoints, and hiring women as couriers.
The question, however, is: If the wildlife contraband seized in Kenya is no longer smuggled out through the Port of Mombasa due to strict enforcement, how does it reach the markets in Southeast Asia?
Lusaka Agreement Taskforce field officer Wesley Kipkazi, says traffickers are exploiting porous borders and enforcement loopholes in Kenya, South Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Uganda, and the insecurity in Somalia and eastern DR Congo to access ports in Central and West Africa.
Illicit ivory and rhino from Tanzania and Kenya are also smuggled through Malindi, Lunga Lunga and Lamu on fishing boats to Somalia, from where it is trafficked to black markets in Southeast Asia.
Some of the contraband, he adds, is – together with illicit wildlife products from the volatile eastern DR Congo – smuggled into Uganda and transported in small quantities, which are consolidated in secure locations and concealed in scrap metal, charcoal and bananas and moved in trucks to Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal and Port Pointe-Noire in Congo Brazzaville.
“Most wildlife products seized from illegal trade proliferate mostly through land crossings such as the One Stop Border Points and the porous international boundaries that Kenya shares with its neighbours. Most of these border points have no scanners to check bulky luggage or freight containers. Boda boda taxis are, on the other hand, used to cut through remote and unpoliced sections of the border,” explains the International Fund for Animal Welfare programme manager for Uganda and the Horn of Africa, Moses Olinga.
Although Kenya is one of the most secure countries in the region, it has an Achilles’ heel: The 1,339-square-kilometre Boni Forest Reserve neighbouring Somalia. Disturbed by al-Shabaab over a decade, it no longer enjoys “protected area” status.
According to a senior government security official, the reserve, which borders the wildlife-rich Tana River and Tsavo ecosystems, could be a conduit for traffickers smuggling ivory, rhino horn and other illicit wildlife products to Somalia.
Insecurity and enforcement weaknesses aside, experts aver that poor pay for rangers and corruption are the weakest links in fighting wildlife crime in the region.
“Corruption is the greatest weakness in our law enforcement processes. It manifests right from investigations to the arrest and decision to charge suspects and also during the prosecution and conviction of offenders,” Didi says.
