Category: Poachers | Date: Apr 05 2008 | By: William

Kenyan law allows rangers to pursue poachers after they have left the park. Following the arrest of a poacher on the 28th of March, there was good information on the whereabouts of other men who were poaching in the same area, and so rangers from Serena have spent the last couple of days tracking the men down. I’ve just spoken to Edward Nkoitoi, who is the Warden of operations, and this is what he told me:

“Day before yesterday, rangers went to around Lolgorian because there was information that someone was seen with game meat in their house, believed to have come from Mara Triangle. We went straight to the house where the meat was, and in the house there were three men, three old men, not very old actually, some Kijana, some Mzee, three women, and then there was some meat.

“We looked at the dried meat, and there were five pieces, big pieces, about the size of two laptops, We arrested the four men - the two women looked a bit new, like guests to the house, so we left them. Then we took the four; one women three men, we took them together with KWS officers to the KWS offices in Lolgorian at around midnight.

“They spent the night there, and yesterday morning we went back to the village, to talk to more people, but none of them knew where the meat came from. Finally at the KWS station we interrogated the four people, after which we released three people because they were not owners of the house and did not know who brought the meat there, and so it was decided that they were innocent. We arrested the owner of the house, which evidence suggested was the owner of the meat, and we took him to the police station. If found guilty, he will either be given a fine or two months in prison.

“Yesterday and today, the rangers have been sent to the same area of the Triangle as the poacher caught on the 28th as we believe there is still illegal activity in that area.”