It is time to crack whip on poaching

Tourists observe a lion at the Maasai Mara in Kenya. Zambia has lifted a ban on the hunting of big cats. FILE PHOTO |  NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• The upsurge in the illicit trade indicates that despite all the tough warnings, the poaching and smuggling syndicates continue to operate with impunity.
• Indeed, the President has made the connection in various speeches to that transnational crime nexus that links poaching to terrorism, illegal arms smuggling, narcotic drugs trade, money laundering, and human trafficking.
• That Kenya is in the spotlight on all these facets indicates a clear and present danger to national security; a nation where border security and Immigration and customs checks on inbound and outward travellers and cargo is not functioning.

By EDITORIAL
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The seizure this week in Singapore of an illegal shipment of ivory and other wildlife products worth Sh570 million is yet another reminder of the dubious distinction Kenya holds globally in the illicit trade.

The Singapore seizure comes just three weeks after another large haul of contraband ivory shipped from Kenya was intercepted in Thailand.

The upsurge in the illicit trade indicates that despite all the tough warnings, the poaching and smuggling syndicates continue to operate with impunity.

The government has acknowledged, after years of turning a blind eye, that unchecked poaching poses a major national security threat.

Indeed, the President has made the connection in various speeches to that transnational crime nexus that links poaching to terrorism, illegal arms smuggling, narcotic drugs trade, money laundering, and human trafficking.

That Kenya is in the spotlight on all these facets indicates a clear and present danger to national security; a nation where border security and Immigration and customs checks on inbound and outward travellers and cargo is not functioning.

Such monumental failures can only occur where the security and customs organs, as well as the government administrative and political structures, have come under control of transnational criminal cartels. The end result is the terrorism and general insecurity that now plague Kenya.

The Kenya Wildlife Service has, in recent years, pre-occupied itself more with fighting the anti-poaching lobby than in combating poachers. 

We hope that a new regime with the return of fabled KWS founder Richard Leakey to head the board of trustees will act firmly and decisively on the illegal trade.