Kenya ready to burn largest ever ivory stockpile

All is set for Saturday’s torching of the largest ivory stockpile at the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) headquarters, in a ceremony to be attended by world leaders and top celebrities.

President Uhuru Kenyatta will preside over the event in which 105 tonnes of ivory and 1.35 tonnes of rhino horns will be set ablaze, this according to KWS Species Conservation and Management boss Patrick Omondi.

The stockpile to be burnt is an accumulation of ivory from 1989, in a national inventory done for the first time in Kenya last year, which helped determine the number of rhino horns and ivory and their location.

In 2008, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna allowed Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa, to sell their 102 tonnes of ivory and rhino horns.

Some of the world’s leading conservation groups are rooting for enforcement of laws and serious legal measures against well connected individuals, feeding the illicit ivory trade.

On Thursday, the KWS revealed that a total of twenty-one seizures have been made by the KWS Canine Unit at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) from January to April 4th, 2016.

The seized miscellaneous trophies include ivory, pangolin scales, wildlife skins, and teeth among others.

According to the statement, majority of those arrested trafficking the illegal trophies are from China, with others from Vietnam, and Malaysia.

Since the enactment of Wildlife Conservation and Management Act, 2013, stiff penalties have been meted out to criminals convicted of being in possession of illegal wildlife trophies.