Cartel Inside Kenya Fueling Rhino, Poaching Deaths A famed scientist and founding former chairman of the Kenya Wildlife Service urged Kenyas president on Wednesday to invoke emergency measures to protect the countrys elephants and rhinos from a poaching crisis sweeping Africa. Richard Leakey also said the Kenyan Wildlife Service has been infiltrated by powerful people enriching themselves off poaching. Kenyas poaching ring leaders are known, he said, but the government has taken no action. He did not give names. Leakey, whose family has been investigating the origins of man for decades in Kenyas Turkana region, urged Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta to overhaul management at the wildlife service. I call on him now personally to take the next step and get this under control, Leakey told a packed news conference at a Nairobi hotel. Its not an impossible task. I think the right leadership, the right management, can get it under control within six months. The official number of elephant deaths given by the Kenya Wildlife Service does not indicate a crisis. Kenyan Wildlife Service says 302 were killed last year, down from 384 in 2012, out of an estimated population of 35,000. Thirty elephants have been poached this year, it says. But Leakey and Paula Kahumbu, the chief executive of the group Wildlife Direct, said they believe Kenya is losing many more elephants. Kahumbu said everyone knows those numbers are wrong. Leakey said: Its patently not true. ... Wildlife Direct released a study Wednesday that found only 4 percent of offenders convicted of wildlife crime in Kenya went to jail between 2008 and mid-2013. Of 743 court cases, 70 percent of the case files were missing. A recent Interpol report found that more ivory is transited through the Kenyan port of Mombasa than any other, but the Wildlife Direct study found no evidence of prosecutions in Mombasa. Leakey said rangers have asked him to speak publicly about the countrys poaching problem. Someone has to put an end to this outrageous impunity, he said. Full story at abcnews.go/International/wireStory/cartel-inside-kenya-fueling-rhino-poaching-deaths-22966463 Image: Mother and calf black rhinos in Kenya, by Harald Zimmer
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 15:35:04 +0000
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