Mwenja:

Please post whether it was Tsavo East or West and which camp was involved.
There are many of us who regularly travel to Tsavo and we wouldn’t want to give our business to camps where the employees don’t care about their wildlife. Thank goodness at least some of the employees had a conscience and turned this man in.

Mwenja,

This is really really serious especially if there is sport hunting involved. Which conservation organisations are following up on this to make sure it does not get slipped under the carpet. Are you going to put out the names?

Just terrible I hope they can punish this idiot!!!!!!

I hope that a lesson will be learned from this, the person accused will be prosecuted and the KWS will continue to follow leads and arrest any others who think they are above the law.

Can you give us the name of this tour company? The company had to have known what was going on. I wonder how many smarmy American tourists were involved in these illegal hunts? I hope that man and his cronies go to prison for a while.

s.

Mwenja,
This is really really serious especially if there is sport hunting involved. Who else beyond the local authorities is dealing with this? Is the Kenya Tourism Board aware? This really needs to be followed closely to make sure it is not slipped under a carpet.

Geez! There’s got to be a way to root out all this corruption. How can we expect to save these animals and their habitats when some of the very people working in the industry are playing both sides? Shameful! Root ‘em out and throw the book at ‘em! Good for the KWS officers acting on the tip. Hopefully they can get these people to sing about anyone else illicitly connected to the operation. As for any of my fellow Americans who may have participated in illegal hunts, if you’re not going to be part of the solution for conservation by adhearing to hunting laws, then just stay home in the states. Though I’m no fan of hunting,I have nothing against hunters or their rights; but everyone must follow the rules. The reality behind conservation is that all animals and human players should benefit. Those who violate the conservation laws not only hurt everyone else’s benefit but their own interests in the long run.
Abusers need to be held accountable. On another topic, two of the elephants killed in Virunga, DRC last month were killed by members of the DRC military. I also read that they beat up some park rangers busting people for illegal charcoal. Seems like the miltary should be helping the rangers, not killing wildlife and assaulting them. I suppose this is too much to expect when DRC must repatriot ex-rebels and militia men back into it’s army. How else are they going to keep some of these individual thugs from returning to the bush to poach, harass, abuse, and pillage the surrounding villages and countryside, like in east Kivu. Few choices there. I guess we should be thankful for what progress has been made there over the past few years, given how bad things were during so many years of regional civil wars. To all those honest and doing right on behalf of the people and wildlife of Africa, bless you all. Keep the faith!
-TheTeach

Sheryl,

I have deliberately left out the of the company because the company can sue me for libel. However, the matter was published in a local daily and I will post this article later today.
The six arrested were Asia/Arab Kenyan citizens,no Americans!

Mwenja

Jan,
Thanks for taking time to read and comment on my blog. The incident took place in the ranches between Tsavo East and T. West, and important migratory corridor for large mammals between the two parks.
I will publish the finer details today.
Mwenja

It was our rangers that conducted the investigations that led to this arrest being made. The accused was in court today and I am hoping to hear what happened shortly. I would like to add a little information and comment on a few of the issues and concerns that this story has produced. I agree with Mwenja that naming the culprit whilst the court case is still in progress is not going to help the legal process and neither is naming the camp. During our investigations, it was very obvious that the accused was acting alone and his superiors were very helpful throughout. The accused has been sacked and he has been replaced by a ranger who has worked for my organisation for over six years and who we are confident will do well in undoing the damage that his predecesor has done.
Mwenja and I were talking about this case on the phone a few minutes ago and I’d like to share one of the points that came up…… This case highlights that poachers in Kenya are not always desperado’s eeking out a living by setting snares or lamping at night; but some are driving around in big four-wheel-drives, taking pot shots at wild animals with large calibre, licensed weapons. Now that legal cropping of wildlife has been rightly banned in Kenya, many of these people have been hired as rangers or ranch and sanctuary managers. You hire a poacher to catch a poacher right? Not in this case sadly! It seems as this was a case of a leopard not being able to change his spots!
No Americans were involved at all and I’m sure that the accused was taking ‘buddies’ and family members out with him rather than running a hunting ‘cartel’. However, poaching is poaching and this man is responsible for a great deal of harm being done to the security of a wonderful piece of Africa. He will face the full force of the law, I’m sure of that.

hmm

I was involved with the operation to catch the accused in this case and would like to make a few comments as such. Naming the accused is only possible once he has been through the courts, which we hope will be soon. I don’t think it will help to name the tour company or camp as they were not involved and have acted quickly and correctly to make things right. If I had any doubt of this then, believe me, I would happily plaster their name on banners high! The tour company might be held up for showing poor judgement in employing such a fellow, but I think they simply followed the old rule of “use a poacher to catch a poacher”, in this case, sadly, it was a case of a leopard not being able to change his spots! (the man comes from a game cropping background) No tourists (even Americans) were involved and the culprit was more showing off to his friends and family than running an illicit commercial operation.
We have worked together with the tour company to replace the poacher with a man who has worked as a wildlife ranger for me for the last six years. I have every confidence that he’ll be able to repair the damage done by this idiot and we’ll be able to move on. I think that lessons have been learnt all round and we’ll all be the better for it. The ranch in question here is a very special piece of Tsavo and Africa and we are making sure that the person who tried to change this is going to be punished severely.

Rob, thanks for filling in the gaps. Sounds like the situation is more of an isolated circumstance, an individual. That’s good news. Glad all parties are on board to resolve the matter and prevent future problems.

Thanks Rob for your informative post. It pays not to jump to conclusions before the whole story can be told. I hope the offender doesn’t get off with just a slap on his hand. His foolishness has cost him his livehood for the moment and I hope he thinks twice about trying to pull something off like this again.

Thanks Dana, Rob and The Teach for your comments. Thanks Rob for adding more details to this post. We should keep pressure so that the poacher faces the full force of the law. He shouldn’t get away with it.

Mwenja

Mwenja.
A quick update on this case…. The report from the ballistics people in Nairobi wasn’t ready on Monday, so the hearing will now be on 23rd of June. I’ll keep you updated.

Hi Rob,

Thanks for that. I will check with you on 24th June.
Mwenja