The illegal ivory trade, estimated to be worth between $7 billion and $10 billion a year, is mostly fuelled by demand in Asia and the Middle East, where elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns are used in traditional medicine and to make ornaments/FILE
The illegal ivory trade, estimated to be worth between $7 billion and $10 billion a year, is mostly fuelled by demand in Asia and the Middle East, where elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns are used in traditional medicine and to make ornaments.
“A precedent has been set by this sentencing, it is a sign that our judiciary is waking up to the scale of the crisis and the damage that is being done to our animals,” Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) spokesman Paul Udoto told AFP.
Chen Biemei, 30, was jailed for 31 months for trying to smuggle 6.9 kilogrammes (15 pounds) of worked ivory she had disguised as 15 bags of macadamia nuts.
Chen, who pleaded guilty, was stopped and arrested on August 14 as she tried to fly to Hong Kong.
Despite a surge of rhino and elephant killings across Kenya – and elsewhere in Africa – previous cases have seen smugglers escape with minimal fines and then set free.
In March, a Kenyan court handed a relatively small fine of less than $350 to a Chinese smuggler caught with a haul of more than 400 pieces of finger-length ivory pieces.
A total of 17 people from six different countries have been arrested trying to smuggle ivory out of Kenya since the beginning of this year, according to KWS.
“It is the longest such sentence I have seen for a long time,” Udoto said. “Now those who want to damage our wildlife must also test our prison system.”
Last year poachers slaughtered 384 elephants in Kenya, up from 289 in 2011, according to official figures, from a total population of around 35,000.
About The Author
