Details have emerged of how in a brazen show of confidence poachers struck in one of Kenya€™s most guarded national parks and made off with a game trophy from one of the country€™s most protected animal species, the rhino.
A killed rhino.
Even as the state ups the ante and employs modern methods on curtailing poaching, the headhunters are falling back to a combination of traditional and modern methods to track and kill game, with devastating effect.
“They chose one of the busiest times of the year to get to the park. We believe they were posing as paying customers to access the park and get to the rhino,” Paul Mbugua, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) spokesperson told The Standard On Sunday.
Investigations by the state agency indicate the poachers, whose number is unknown, used one of the 250 vehicles that accessed the park on August 9, which also happened to be the Muslim holiday of Idd Ul Fitr.
Showing their growing confidence, the poachers shot and killed the rhino in an open space where visibility is good for tens of kilometres, and used a high calibre rifle, that experts believe to be a .458. It only took one shot to do the job. The killing site had no thickets around, meaning the killers could have been easily spotted by routine patrols or other tourists.
Minutes later, the carcass was left to the scavengers as the poachers made away with the horn, made of keratin, the same compound as human nails. The vicious daylight attack casts doubt on the efficiency of the country’s wildlife security services in protecting the country’s game.
“€œIt would be impossible to tell that certain customers were up to no good at the park. They came as bonafide visitors and there was no way of telling that they were up to no mischief,”€ Mr Mbugua said of the poachers who were in possession of the weapon as they made way into the park.
Sources also told The Standard On Sunday that the rhino was killed at a water hole, the only one serving an area spanning an arid side of the park.
Monitored sites
Water holes are often the most monitored sites in game sanctuaries since they provide a guarantee of animal traffic. The killed bull rhino was recently relocated to the park and was taking time to adjust to its surroundings.
A source at KWS who did not wish to be named since he is not authorised to talk to the media said the attack only proves that poachers are not only getting sophisticated in their weaponry but are increasingly becoming thorough in gathering intelligence on the movement of KWS rangers.
“That particular attack points to two things. Either they had monitored our movement for a long time and knew exactly where we were at different times or they were being fed information by one of us. The attack was a dare to us… as if they are asking us to catch them if we can,”€ the source said.
Poaching of rhinos and elephants has been on the rise not only in Kenya, but in Africa as a whole with herds of elephants massacred for their ivory. One kilogramme of rhino horn can fetch more than Sh5.5million while that of ivory is estimated to be worth more than Sh170,000 on the Asian black market.
The emergence of an affluent and powerful middle class in Asian countries such as China and Vietnam is believed to be the major market for the game products.
KWS says that 35 rhinos have been killed so far this year compared to 29 last year. It is believed that a majority of the poached rhino horns are destined for the Far East where their mythical healing properties are sought after. In comparison in 2012 poachers killed some 385 elephants last year.
In spite of heightened anti- poaching measures including the use of drones and the establishment of special anti- poaching units in other parts of the country, poaching has been on the increase.
“€œAs long as the demand is there, poaching will continue to be a menace. It is up to us to try as much as we can to contain it, and if possible stop it,”€ Mbugua said. Currently, poaching, catagorised under law as unlawful possession of a government trophy€ is classified as a minor offence. However, a proposed law seeks to increase poaching fines and impose stiffer penalties.
Silver bullet
But, this according to some conservationists will not be the silver bullet that ends the poaching menace.
“As long as there is a market for illegal game products, poachers will continue to hunt down our game,”€ Ian Douglas-Hamilton of Save the Elephants told this writer in a previous interview, adding that the current spike in poaching incidences in nothing short of “a holocaust.â€
As numbers of the Big Five continue to dwindle, KWS is confident that in the long term, it will win the war on poaching.
“We have been mandated to ensure that our game is seen by generations to come. We shall not fail in this. We will win this war,†Mbugua said.
Sadly, the rising number of the dead point to a different, but possible reality.
A reality showing that at the current poaching rate, it will only take a decade to wipe off elephant herds from our game parks and reserves and much less time for rhinos to disappear from Kenya’s famed landscapes.
