Poachers to serve five years in jail for illegally having tusks

Two poachers will serve five years imprisonment after they were found guilty of being in possession of elephant tusks.

Andrew Yegon and Joseph Karani were charged with two counts of being in possession of two pieces of elephant tusks weighing 2kg valued at Sh500,000 without a permit.

They were also accused of dealing with wildlife trophies without license.

The two were allegedly found with the trophies in a hotel waiting for a buyer on January 28, 2016, at Showground Junction in Nakuru.

Cyprian Kauginia, a wildlife officer, testifie din court, saying he was at the Lake Nakuru Camp when he received a tip-off from the public that the two were purporting to have elephant tusks.

The officer posed as an interested buyer and organised for an exchange in one of the hotels in Kiamunyi.

Inside the hotel, Karani is said to have approached the officer with the trophies, which he was selling at Sh30,000.

After exchanging information with the officer the accused is said to have gone outside to call his accomplice Yegon to help in negotiations.

They were both apprehended and taken to a police station.

Ogelo Mwebi, a research scientist at the National Museum, said the two tusks were from a very young elephant.

Senior Resident Magistrate Nancy Makau said the prosecution has to assert that the accused persons were in possession of the tusks.

“In this case the accused persons have admitted being in the restaurant but denied being in possession of the elephant tusks,” she said.

The two accused persons were sentenced to serve a five-year imprisonment or pay a Sh1 million fine for both counts.