Alex Kiprotich
6 August 2007
Nairobi — Kenya's elephant population at independence was 167,000 and by 1989, they had been reduced to a mere 16,000. The alarming decline attributed to poaching forced the Government to take drastic steps to address the issue.
This forced the Kenya Wildlife Service to come up with an Elephant Programme that is responsible for coordinating management, research and monitoring the wild animals throughout the country.
"The aim of the programme during its initiation was to protect the elephants from the danger of extinction," says KWS spokesman, Mr Paul Udoto.
Thus in May 1989, Kenya along with other nations, proposed the listing of the African elephant on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).
Wild animals covered by Cites treaty are classified into three appendices according to how trade threatens their survival.
Those in appendixes I are species threatened with extinction and trade in its specimen are only permitted in exceptional cases, while appendix II includes the animals not necessarily threatened by extinction but its trade must be regulated in order to avoid utilisation that threatens their survival.
The animals covered under appendix III are species protected in at least one country, which has asked Cites for assistance in controlling the trade.
The country won its approval when in October 1989, the parties to the Cites voted to up-list the African elephant to Appendix I, thus banning international trade in ivory and other elephant products.
Udoto says the condition for Kenya's elephants has now improved dramatically.
However, the June 1997 decision by Cites to down-list elephants to appendix II in some Southern African countries to allow limited trade in ivory, he says, was of concern to the country.
"Conservationists felt that this could increase poaching because it would open up the ivory market," he says.
Kenya negotiated for nine-year ban
And in June this year, Kenya presented a strong case for the continued ban on the sale of Ivory at The Hague during the Cites meeting as Southern Africa countries agitated for the lifting of the ban.
Kenya was at the forefront leading a group of elephant-range countries strongly opposed to the re-opening of the trade, which they deemed premature.
The powerful delegation - comprising KWS CEO, Dr Julius Kipng'etich, and Tourism minister, Mr Morris Dzoro -pushed for the ban for nine more years though they had campaigned for a 20-year ban.
Udoto says the Cites' nine-year ban on ivory trade is a big relief in conservation efforts.
He says the period would allow for the monitoring of the elephants and sharing of information and technology among the African states on the best practices to manage the menace.
"The ban on ivory trade is a big relief on our conservation efforts and besides, this period will allow for adequate monitoring to determine the forces that have been driving the deaths of elephants," he says.
Udoto says KWS has enhanced security in its parks that has led to reduction in poaching of the elephants and rhinos. So far this year, no rhino has been poached - with the last case being in June 2006 at Tsavo East.
"We have enhanced our intelligence gathering machinery and recruited more game scouts from communities within the parks to beef up vigilance," says the KWS communications manager.
Udoto says security units are more effective unlike in the past. The parastatal now has close to 150 patrol vehicles and they undertake aerial surveillance from time to time using the 14 aircraft.
"Recent cases of poaching are largely because of heightened surveillance and not a case of increase in poaching. Currently our wildlife is much safer," he says.
And so it seems international treaties have helped crack down on armed poachers and stabilised Kenya's elephant and rhinoceros populations. But as the focus has been on stopping illegal big-game hunting, a new form of poaching has come up.
Instead of ivory and rhino horn, poachers have now turned to bush meat.
One of the starkest signs of the extent of the bush meat trade in the country came in a 2004 investigation by an independent body.
Out of 200 butcheries sampled randomly in Nairobi, a London-based conservation group found that a quarter of the meat sold was bush meat and 20 per cent was game meat mixed with beef and goat meat.
A walk along the game trails famed for their abundant wildlife, thousands of wire snares fixed on low tree branches lie in wait.
"Poachers who were after elephant and rhino have turned to illegal hunting due to controversial trade bans that have shut down its sales," says a KWS official at Nakuru Park.
Conservationists are now worried that the illegal hunting is flooding the market with inexpensive bush meat because of its affordability.
"Bush meat is cheap and readily available to the poor Kenyans who cannot afford to buy beef and goat meat," says the officer on condition of anonymity.
He says that small-scale hunters have become big time killers, especially in game reserves that are not highly secured.
Nakuru National Park Senior Warden Mr Charles Muthui says game reserves like Kamnarok located in Baringo, private ranches in Laikipia, and Soysambu ranch in Naivasha are easy targets for hunters looking for game meat.
He says KWS personnel have recovered wire snares from ranches, especially the Soysambu ranch.
"We have secured our parks but the private ranches is where the real problem lies though we do frequent patrols," he says.
During rainy seasons, it is routine to spot young men enter the game reserves and ranches in groups with wire snares. "What do you expect us to feed our families with? The meat is readily available," said Mr Amos Karanja, a resident of Kiungururia near the vast Soysambu ranch.
The hunters target mostly impala, gazelle and Dik-dik.
"We are interested in putting a meal on our family tables. We are poor and cannot afford beef," said another hunter on condition of anonymity.
Karanja says though the risk involved is high because some of his friends have been killed, it is poverty that is driving them to game hunting.
But big time hunters in most ranches owned by private farmers go for buffalo and giraffe, which are sold to unsuspecting Kenyans at meat joints.
"Ranch owners kill poachers when they spot them carrying carcasses of gazelles but they are the ones killing buffaloes and other big animals," says Karanja.
Udoto says though the KWS is addressing the issue, poaching outside parks still exists and is a tall order controlling it.
"Bush meat poaching outside the parks has been a challenge to us but we continue to crackdown on the dealers and call for stiffer penalties," he says.
Muthui say the problem is that the criminal code's punishment for poachers is not severe.
"The law is lenient on poachers and most of the times they are not even handed a custodial sentence," he says.
He says the people who live within the game sanctuaries are also ignorant on what the law says about protecting the animals.
However, he says they have sensitised the locals on how to co-exist peacefully with the wildlife.
"They come into contact with wildlife often and the demand for meat makes them to hunt the animals," he says. But the country hopes to address all of those issues with an overhauled wildlife policy, which is currently with the Minister for Tourism.
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