Senior Resident Magistrate Wanangwa Nyirenda on Thursday, December 1st 2022, sentenced Zambian national Kelby Roy Malambo to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour for the three charges he faced in the MK53m wildlife crime case involving elephant ivory.

Magistrate Nyirenda, sitting in Lilongwe, gave Malambo 15 years for each of the three counts. The sentences will run concurrently.

The charges Malambo faced were; being found in possession of specimen of listed species, dealing in government trophy and importing specimen of listed species without producing to a customs officer a valid permit.

All those offences are contrary to the National Parks and Wildlife Act of 2017.

Passing the sentence, Senior Resident Magistrate Nyirenda said the evidence that the state tendered in court was befitting of the sentence.

He added the offense was well planned, the convict used uncharted routes and involved a syndicate, among other mischiefs.

He further ordered that the 22 pieces of ivory, Malambo was found with, be forfeited to Malawi Government's Department of National Parks and Wildlife.

State prosecutor, Levison Mangani, said he was happy with the sentence as there was too much ivory involved. He added the sentence will deter other would-be-offenders.

Malambo, whose case dragged for over a year, was found with 22 pieces of raw ivory, weighing 64.905 kilograms and valued at about MK53 million. He was arrested at Mwami Border Total Filling Station in Mchinji in February, 2021.

During defense, Malambo, in a futile bid to be exonerated, paraded himself and two other Zambian witnesses.

All of them--Malambo, Moses Richard and Kylian Mulumba--gave a similar account, that: "Malambo was not the owner of the items, that he was just asked to bring the items to Malawi and that he did not even know the items because they were sealed in sack bags".

Malambo, 47, comes from Livingstone City in Monze District in Zambia.