By Philip Mwakio
What is suspected to be the largest ever ivory haul has been impounded at the port of Mombasa.
The discovery of the game trophies was made following intelligence received by the Kenya Wildlife Service.
KWS Assistant Director in charge of Coast Conservation area, Mr Simon Gitau, said the 727 pieces of ivory, which were stashed in bags inside a 20-foot container disguised as plastic waste chips, were worth more than Sh200 million.
He revealed that close to 200 elephants might have been slaughtered to make up the consignment.
"This is our second discovery in less than a month at the port of Mombasa. We have been following up on this particular consignment and had alerted police before we requested for verification to be done," Gitau said.
By the time of going to press, weighing of the impounded cargo was still underway.
It was a flurry of activity at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Custom bonded warehouse at the portâs Berth 5 as Government officials opened the bags in search of the ivory.
evict journalists
At one point, a senior KRA official attempted to throw out journalists from the premises. However, journalists protested at the move and refused to leave.
Gitau said initial investigation had revealed that the ivory originated from a neighbouring country.
Since KWS introduced an anti-smuggling team at the port, there have been several recoveries unlike in the past when it was suspected that illegal game trophies were smuggled out of the country through the harbour with ease.
