Bush Meat in Kenya

It is emerging that the effects of the drought on the country’s elephant population goes beyond familiar causes of mortality – death from starvation or killing arising from human wildlife conflict. The recent rise in poaching incidents in the country has been linked to the rising demand for ivory which is attributed to the influx of Chinese nationals working in Kenya.

Information coming in from the field particularly here in Tsavo blames the rise of poaching on the prolonged drought and brings in a new twist to this worrying trend -a new category of poachers and new drivers. The photos below of elephant carcasses were taken at Ziwani area, outside Tsavo West National Park where most of the Park elephants migrated to during the drought in search of food and water. I am informed that Masai herdsmen who lost most of their livestock during this spell (thereby losing their sole means of livelihood) are the new category of ‘unwilling’ poachers.

The herdsmen, faced with starvation and extreme poverty cannot resist the extra shilling that they are being enticed with by Chinese nationals working in a nearby construction project. It is evident from the crime scene and the carcass that these elephants were killed using spears in a struggle that must have required several men to execute. These are not the ivory poachers we have known for decades who mostly use automatic weapons to kill elephants and have no time for concealing the carcass with twigs as shown above. As Dr Richard Leakey puts it “..People are increasingly becoming desperate and are therefore getting more involved in poaching to put food on the table. The current drought in Kenya has made the situation even worse”

Though we have blamed drought for death of elephants, pastoralist who lost their livelihood from this drought are definitely a new threat that we will need to address seriously if they are to resist the extra shilling from the Chinese. It is the pastoralists who live in the rangelands with most of Kenya’s elephant population outside parks and they could pose a big threat to elephants. Since they are far away from the eyes of KWS Rangers, they are able to kill elephants and conceal the crime. That is why most of these cases go unreported yet we recover ivory on transit heading for export market almost every month. It imperative that the pastoralist be assisted to start new sustainable sources of livelihoods to dissuade them from falling prey to the Chinese workers who are spread across the country in remote areas where they are undertaking construction projects for the government.

Technorati : Dr Leakey, Ivory, KWS, Kenya, Rangers, Tsavo, drought, elephant, elephant poaching, ivory trade, livelihood loss, livestock, starvation