Two Men Fined Sh200,000 by Narok Court for being in possession of game meat.

Narok, Kenya: Two men were Friday fined Sh200,000 by a Narok Court for being in possession of game meat.

Musegiria Nguruma and Lerian Risanjo appeared before Narok Senior Resident Magistrate, Allan Temba Sitati  for being in possession of 100 kilograms of game meat without a license from the Kenya Wildlife Serve (KWS) in contravention of Wildlife Act 2013.

They had denied committing the offense on September 20, last year at Ilban village in Narok South sub-county.

Their co-accused Nankut Ole Pesi was acquitted of the charges for lack of sufficient evidence.

The court was told on the material night of the incident, rangers at Naibosho conservancy discovered that two elands had been killed, skinned and their heads, skin and legs left behind.

They mounted a search and before long, were informed about plenty of meat that was being kept in a manyatta on the border of the conservancy.With the help of the police, rangers stormed the manyatta and recovered 100 Kg of meat which was hanging to dry in one of the four manyattas in the compound .

The police arrested Nguruma who was sleeping in the same manyatta where the fresh meat was hanging and Risanjo who is said to be the owner of the manyatta.

In his judgment, the magistrate said prosecution had proven their case against the two accused persons. Sitati observed the fact that the meat which was produced in court as exhibit was found in a manyatta where Nguruma was sleeping ,clearly puts him on the spot as an accomplice in this offense.

The magistrate also found that Risanjo was the owner of the manyatta where the meat was found and therefore responsible for what was happening in his compound.

"And the fact that Risanjo tried to run away when he saw the security personnel approach points to a guilty conscience," Sitati said.

The court also noted that in their defense, the accused persons did not explain where they got such large amount of meat and did not also deny that the meat was found in their manyatta where a blood stained arrow was also recovered.

"The time frame of four hours between the killings of the two elands, proximity to the scene of the manyatta where the recovery of the meat was made, all connects the accused persons to this offense. Thus the time and distance was too short to doubt that indeed it's the accused persons who killed the animals," The magistrate said.