Wildlife protection in Kenya still a distant dream: Report

Protection of wildlife, especially endangered species, is still a distant dream even as Kenya is seen to have made commendable steps in combating poaching, says a wildlife report released on Monday.

According to the report by Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring network, sophisticated poachers, among other factors, could undercut the country’s fight against wildlife crime.

The report, "Wildlife protection and trafficking assessment in Kenya: Drivers and trends of transnational wildlife crime in Kenya and its role as a transit point for trafficked species in East Africa", identifies Kenya as a key African transit country for illicit wildlife items.

Traffic recognises Kenya’s effort in taking a bold stand against wildlife crime through improved enforcement action and imposition of higher penalties for wildlife crimes and by being the only African range state to report a significant fall in the number of rhinos poached last year.

But it singles out the country as a key source and transit point for wildlife commodities exiting Africa. It goes on to say actions taken to stem wildlife crime are at risk of being undermined by weaknesses in laws governing wildlife trafficking, corruption, weak capacity and high demand in Asian markets.

NO COOPERATION

Further, the lack of regional and international cooperation in East Africa to address wildlife crime is identified as a critical weakness, hindering efforts that would enable more emphasis to be placed on intelligence-based operations and make them more effective in targeting criminals higher up the trade chain.

“Corruption among government and private sector officials, porous borders, and endemic conflict among communities in northern Kenya facilitate the illicit flow of weapons used by local poachers, key enabling factors of the illegal wildlife trade,” states the report.

“The fact that wildlife contraband, especially rhino horn and elephant ivory, has been exported from Kenya only to be seized in transit or in destination countries means that wildlife traffickers are able to exploit security loopholes in the country’s law enforcement network,” it says.

Among other findings, the report highlights Kilindini port in Mombasa and Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi as key exit points from the continent for illegally traded wildlife products from countries including Tanzania, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Zambia and South Sudan.

Since 2009, more ivory has been shipped through Mombasa than any other trade route out of Africa, it says.

“Future enforcement interventions in Kenya and elsewhere in the region need to be internationally co-ordinated and focus on targeting the middlemen and kingpins of large-scale trafficking, rather than easily replaceable low-level poachers and transport mules,” says Steven Broad, the executive director of Traffic.

According to the report, after years of recovery, Kenya’s elephant population is experiencing a marginal decline, with around 32,500 animals left in the wild — well below the estimated population of 167,000 in 1973. Similarly, since 1970, Kenya’s rhinoceros population fell from around 20,000 to just 650 black and 381 white rhinos in 2014.

'CONSIDERABLE PROGRESS'

Dr Richard Leakey, the Chairman of the Kenya Wildlife Service, says: “Traffic’s report highlights the considerable progress made by the authorities in addressing wildlife poaching and trafficking in Kenya but does not shy away from acknowledging the considerable challenges that lie ahead: it is a blueprint for taking action against the organized criminal syndicates who undermine our society and rob us of our wildlife”.

In spite of the challenges and limited resources, the report applauds Kenya for achieving tremendous improvements in tackling wildlife crime.

Under the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act (WCMA) of 2013, the government is enforcing very high minimum penalties of Sh20 million and or life imprisonment for killing threatened species.

Prior to the enactment of the law, a study of wildlife crime cases prosecuted between 2008 and 2013 showed only 4 per cent of people convicted of wildlife crimes went to jail, and in relation to ivory and rhino horn cases, only 7 per cent of offenders were incarcerated after conviction.

However, in spite of recent landmark rulings such as the January 2014 imposition of a minimum fine of Sh20 million on a Chinese ivory smuggler arrested in transit from Mozambique through Kenya with 3.4kg of raw ivory, and the handing of a four-year jail term in May 2015 to a Kenyan woman found guilty of possessing five pieces of elephant tusks, prosecuting wildlife crime in Kenya is still greatly hampered by an inadequate number of wildlife crime prosecutors, says the report.

The report also highlights unclear laws and the inclusion of high minimum penalties within the WCMA as resulting in an increase in “not guilty” pleas and a consequent rise in the number of trials in a Kenyan system already suffering from a significant backlog of cases as impediments to the country’s performance in stamping out wildlife crime.