Poachers shoot, kill elephant near reserve

By Kipchumba Kemei

Marauding poachers have killed an elephant and made away with its tusks near Masai Mara Game Reserve.

The male elephant was killed on Tuesday at Nyakwere Forest in Transmara, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said yesterday.

Jonathan Kirui, the KWS Central Rift Assistant Director said an unknown number of poachers waylaid and killed the lone jumbo and plucked its tusks using a power saw.

“We are pursuing the poachers who escaped moments after the incident. KWS has enlisted the support of various agencies in the hunt for the poachers,” said Kirui who added that incidents of poaching within Central Rift have gone down.

He added that poachers used poisoned arrows to kill the elephant and asked the Provincial Administration and the public to remain vigilant and assist KWS to curb poaching in Mara.

The official told The Standard that the service crack unit has been deployed to Naivasha to track down poachers, who this week killed a black rhino, and vowed that they would be arrested.

“The unit which is working in tandem with other Government agencies has been deployed to the area to hunt them down. We will surely arrest them,” he said.

Mr Kirui added that surveillance has been heightened around the Naivasha area to protect rhinos, which were at the mercy of poachers who routinely prowl the area.

Reduction In Poaching

In the last six months, he said poaching for tusks and game meat has gone down, adding that since the beginning of the year no elephant has been killed in Kerio Valley, which was once crawling with poachers.

He spoke as a Narok court yesterday directed that a vehicle which was in December last year intercepted along Narok-Mai Mahiu road transporting 57kg of elephant tusks be forfeited to the KWS.