On the 24th of August, after enjoying a period of relative peace, armed poachers once again struck at the heart of our heritage, leaving one elephant dead in Rukinga Ranch. Two days later, this time at Amaka Ranch, our rangers discovered the corpses of two more male elephants that had been mercilessly killed and their tusks hacked off. 9 AK 47 and 7 G3 rifle cartridges were also recovered from the scene. Just when we were getting over the shock of these tragedies, it happened again-this time at Washumbu Ranch. Two other elephants were cruelly slaughtered for their tusks.
How ruthless can one get? Kenyans protested the the ruthless killing of elephants for ivory
That is a total of 5 elephants dead in approximately an equal span of days! These figures are the worst we have seen in a long, long time and are a heavy blow to the estimated 2,500 elephants living in the Kasigau Corridor.
There is no telling what would put an end to the ruthless massacre of elephants and other endangered wildlife but one thing is for certain: Kenyans, and every other conservationist by extension, are exhausted and angered by the killing of wildlife for trophies. To demonstrate their feelings, Kenyans recently created a sensitization campaign in the mainstream and social media, urging poachers to keep their hands off ‘our’ elephants. The ‘Hands off Our Elephants’ campaign is the initiative of WildlifeDirect, a charitable organization founded by Dr. Richard Leakey.
Tusks recovered from one of the killed elephants. The tusks were forwarded to KWS Voi offices to await destruction
Kenyans have shown an immense support for the campaign especially on social media sites, where they’ve made comments that were largely aimed at governments in Asia where the sale of game trophies is a booming business. High profile corporate and government officials including the first lady Mrs. Margaret Kenyatta and Titus Naikuni, who is the executive officer at Kenya Airways, have also shown their support to the campaign.
There is also an active online petition aimed at President Uhuru Kenyatta to amend the laws of the country to include stiffer penalties for those found committing crimes against wildlife. Until very recently, there have been very few custodial sentences for people caught in poaching-related cases and the fines imposed on poachers were minimal. Many Kenyans have questioned whether the two-years-and-seven-months jail sentence that was recently handed to a Chinese woman who was found smuggling ivory worth US$ 67,000 was a harsh enough penalty. Others have lauded the sentence as a big move in a country that has never handed custodial sentences to poachers.
Bullet shells that were recovered from the crime scenes
Meanwhile, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has threatened to fine Kenya and other countries in the ‘Gang of Eight’ for failing to do enough to protect endangered wildlife. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have been identified as the source countries for illegal ivory in a one-week conference that was held in Bangkok in March of this year. Philippines and Malaysia were named as transit countries while China and Thailand were pointed out as destination countries for illegal ivory.
A fallen elephant in the Rukinga Sanctuary.
If the CITES sanction comes into effect, these three East African countries stand to lose the most. They could be banned from all economic activities related to trade in wildlife products included in the CITES 135,000 list of endangered species.
At Wildlife Works, we remain committed to conserving and protecting wildlife. Therefore, any setbacks encountered will not deter our devotion to this mission.