Police in Kenya impound ivory consignment

Police in Kenya’s port city of Mombasa have impounded a consignment of ivory worth millions of shillings.

The elephant tusks, said to number more than 200, were seized at a yard in an estate in Mombasa on Thursday morning.


Confirming the development, Mombasa County Police Chief Geofrey Mayek said a Kenyan suspect had been arrested.

“It is suspected that the tusks were hacked from at least 114 elephants from Tsavo National Park and other neighbouring parks in the region,” an official from the Kenya Wildlife Service said.

The government has overhauled the national wildlife legislation by approving the Wildlife Bill in a swift response to the escalating poaching of elephants and rhinos.

The legislation came into effect early this year and attracts the world’s most severe penalties.

Offences against all endangered species,, including elephants and rhinos, or their products, now attract a fine of 225,000 dollars or life imprisonment

Kenya has been identified as one of the leading transit routes for the smuggling ivory out of Africa.