By CYRUS OMBATI

Police at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport have intercepted more than a ton of ivory valued at more that Sh100 million.

The ivory was disguised as a cargo and was destined for Lagos, Nigeria when it was discovered on Thursday night.
The cargo was intercepted at the African Cargo as the dealers waited for the airbill.

Preliminary investigations showed the ivory originated in the country meaning more than 50 elephants may have been killed.

KWS Director Julius Kipngetich displayS seized pieces of raw ivory at the Nairobi National Park after they were intercepted at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the recent past. On Thursday, another ivory consignment worth over Sh100 million and destined for Nigeria was impounded at JKIA [ PHOTO:Standard/File BONIFACE OKENDO]

Police said the documents found on the cargo claimed it had been dispatched by Brunei embassy in Nairobi.
However Brunei does not have an embassy in Nairobi.

The seizure is the biggest in the country in the recent past.
Trade of ivory is illegal in the country.
Airport CID boss Joseph Ngisa said they are investigating to know the exact origin of the ivory.

“We are yet to know the source of this cargo for now and we really want to know. It is interesting to us and the country,” said Ngisa.

The incident comes days after a Chinese national was arrested with 96.5 kilos of ivory valued at about Sh1 million.

The man was from DRC Congo and was headed for his country when detectives at the Airport detected the ivory.

Police say the man had concealed the ivory as normal luggage. The officers investigating the incident say the Chinese had come with the ivory from Congo.

Ivory trophies are popular in China and some Asian countries. In April, Thailand confiscated two tons of elephant tusks valued at over Sh274 million being smuggled through a Bangkok port from Kenya and hidden in a shipment of frozen fish.

Officials said the amount of ivory seized may be equated to at least 123 elephants killed but it is not clear if all the animals were poached in the country alone.

The 247 tusks, some up to two meters long, were found during an X-ray scan of a shipping container labeled as frozen mackerel among 100 boxes in a boat at Bangkok Port on the Chao Phraya river, customs officials said.

They valued the tusks at 100 million baht ($3.3 million).

Poaching of elephants in central and eastern Africa has intensified in recent years, with much of the illegal ivory exported to Asia.

Kenya Wildlife Services director Dr Julius Kipngetich said then they intended to introduce sniffer dogs at the Mombasa port as part of measures to curb the illegal shipping of the ivory.

International trade in ivory was banned in 1989, but seizures have risen dramatically in the past five years.