Kenya arrests 12 poachers
with 7.2kg of rhino horns - www.coastweek.com
The rising price for black-market rhino horn is the most
likely reason for the increased poaching. The illegal trade
is being driven by Asian demand for rhinoceros horns
NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- Kenya ’s wildlife authorities said Monday they are holding 12 suspected poachers caught in possession of two rhino horns weighing a total of 7.2 kg.
Addressing a news conference in Nairobi , Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) Director, Julius Kipng’etich commended the operation terming it a major breakthrough in unravelling the poachers syndicate.
“Taking care of Kenya ’s wildlife is a deadly affair but we have reinforced our capacity. We are also going to increase our ranger force,” the KWS director told journalists in Nairobi .
Kipng’etich said the six were arrested by KWS security teams on Sunday following a major operation after a Dec. 28, 2009 poaching incident of a ten-year old female rhino at the Mugie Rhino Sanctuary in Laikipia West District in central Kenya .
Kipng’etich said part of the purchase money totalling 647,000 shillings (about 6,600 U.S. dollars) was recovered in one of the suspect’s residence in Baringo East.
Kipng’etich who said the poachers were due to appear in court later Monday also reiterated on KWS commitment to protect the country’s wildlife.
The Kenya black rhino population now stands at 600 animals, while white rhinos are slightly above 300 animals.
Before the rampant poaching of rhinos in the 1970s Kenya had about 20,000 black rhinos but poaching reduced the numbers to less than 300 animals by mid 1980s.
The Kenyan rhino population is distributed in the sanctuaries within the national parks and reserves and in privately managed rhino sanctuaries across the country.
Mugie rhino sanctuary which is home to 24 black rhino and one white rhino is one the most recent victims of the increasing spate of rhino poaching in the private sanctuaries.
Poaching in Kenya hit the critical one percent of the rhino population in 2009 for the first time in 25 years.
This was the highest illegal rhino killings recorded in recent times. Twelve black rhinos (two percent of Kenya black rhino population) and six white rhinos (1.5 percent) of Kenya Southern white rhinos were illegally killed last year.
Most of the poaching incidents were recorded in the private ranches where a total of thirteen rhinos were poached. The rhino poaching gangs are armed with high caliber semi-automatic weapons.
The rising price for black-market rhino horn is the most likely reason for the increased poaching. South Africa and Zimbabwe have similarly been affected by this rampant global rhino poaching. In 2009, the two nations lost more than 250 rhinos, and the poaching is escalating.
The illegal trade is being driven by Asian demand for rhinoceros horns. Rhino horn has been used in traditional Asian medicines for thousands of years where together with other concoctions it is prescribed for fevers, convulsions and as an aphrodisiac.
However scientific studies have found no medicinal properties in the rhino horn. The horn is made of keratin, the same type of protein that makes up human hair and fingernails. The horns are also prized as dagger handles in Yemen and Oman
