Kenya To Get Tough On Elephant Poachers

Elephant poachers in Kenya are to face stricter measures as government through the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), plans to add 1,000 more rangers to its park to protect the animals.

"We intend to fight poachers at all levels to save our elephants," government spokesman, Muthui Kariuki said.

Kariuki blames persistent wildlife struggling to outdated penalties.

"One of the major setbacks are lenient penalties and sentencing for wildlife crime by the courts," he said.

"The government is concerned about this and has facilitated the process of reviewing the wildlife law and policy with a view to having more deterrent penalties and jail terms."

"We look forward to (the) parliament giving priority to passing of a new wildlife law and policy," Kariuki added.

Kenya's wildlife current law caps punishment for the most serious wildlife crimes at a maximum fine of 40,000 Kenyan shillings ($450), and a possible jail term of up to 10 years.

Last month, a Chinese smuggler caught in Kenya with a haul of ivory was fined less than a dollar a piece. The smuggler, who was arrested carrying 439 pieces of worked ivory while in transit in Nairobi as he travelled from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Hong Kong, was fined $US350 ($A337) and was then set free, daily telegraph reported.

Although elephant ivory trade has been outlawed since 1989 after elephant populations in Africa dropped from millions in the mid-20th century to some 600,000 by the end of the 1980s;  illegal ivory trade has been mostly fuelled by demand in Asia and the Middle East, where elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns are used to make ornaments and in traditional medicine.

In the last couple of years, elephants and rhinos in East African countries have been targeted. In January, a gang of poachers entered Kenya’s Tsavo East National Park and killed 11 elephants.

In January, officials in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa seized 638 pieces of illegal elephant ivory (more than two tonnes of ivory) estimated to be worth $1.2 million at Kenya's main port. Gitau Gitau, the Kenya Revenue Authority officer in charge of the port said the tusks were from Tanzania and was destined for Indonesia.

Last year, Kenya lost 384 elephants and 19 rhinos to poachers compared with 289 elephants and 29 rhinos in 2011, official figures shows. In this year alone, Kenya has already lost 74 elephants.

Similar attack also persists in Central Africa as elephants have become premium target as elephant ivory prices near an all-time high. A well organised group of about 300 Arabic-speaking men who travel on horseback has reportedly killed hundreds of forest elephants and left the dead bodies to rot.

Forest elephants in Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Chad have since faced the danger of extinction as poachers persist in their act. In 2012, a single attack killed over 300, leaving their bodies to rot.

However, a new attack on the animals that left 86 elephants dead in Chad have caused affected nations to come together in a plan to get high-tech equipment to put a stop to the poaching  .