Below is Paula Kahumbu’s Letter to Margaret Kenyatta on the Poaching Crisis.
Her Excellency Margaret Kenyatta
First Lady of the Republic of Kenya
State House, Gate B
Office of the First Lady
P.O Box 40530-00100
Nairobi
Kenya
14 June 2014
Your Excellency,
CONCERN ABOUT THE ELEPHANT POACHING CRISIS IN KENYA AND REQUEST FOR YOUR INTERVENTION
By now you have heard that one of the Kenya’s greatest elephant icons, Satao, is dead. Satao lived in Tsavo East National Park and he was slain by a poisoned arrow. Less than a month ago another icon, Mountain Bull, was gunned down in Mount Kenya. I am sure that you share my deep sorrow, words cannot describe how devastated I feel about what his happening to our elephants.
Alongside poaching, Kenya is also renowned as a hub for the transiting of ivory and CITES have just revealed that 80% of the ivory exiting Africa is passing through Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, and that Mombasa is now the world’s most active port for transiting of ivory[1].
I appreciate the great efforts that are being made by the Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural resources through the enactment of new legislation, the Kenya Wildlife Service on anti-poaching, the Police on making seizures. The consequences for poachers and traffickers are beginning to emerge as the Judiciary and the state prosecutors implement reforms in the legal sector. In addition I am thankful for the allocation of KES 1.8 billion for anti-poaching in next year’s budget. And civil society is working hard to support all of these efforts.
However, Kenya still treats these crimes as wildlife offences, when in fact there is ample evidence that these are organized crimes, international crimes, and economic crimes. The poachers and traffickers will continue to win and we will still lose all of our elephants and rhinos unless Kenya adopts a national strategy to robustly combat wildlife crime as international crimes and organized crimes. We must be smarter and more effective than the perpetrators of these crimes if we are to win.
Your Excellency, Kenya won before and we can do it again.
This letter is an appeal to you to take three important actions that will transform our performance and success in this war against the criminals who threaten our heritage, our economy and our security
Speak out boldly about this crisis and its impact on our heritage, our economy and our security at the UNEP Governing Assembly this month so that the worlds leaders witness your determination to end the crisis. Appeal for international support towards immediately ending all forms of trade in ivory in order to kill the demand.
Appeal to Kenyans to help. Use your office to provide transparency and accountability that Kenyans are asking for on poaching, ivory seizures and stocks, arrests and prosecutions. Invite Kenyans to help you; Kenyans can raise funds, report crimes and protect elephant habitats and corridors.
Announce that you will lead the creation of a National Strategy to Combat International Wildlife Crime and enlist the support of law enforcement experts, as well as non-state actors and experts to help you craft effective strategic interventions on legislation, law enforcement, compliance, accountability, outreach and international cooperation.
Your Excellency, we support you and your leadership on this issue and we know that your voice is the most powerful one in the room right now. As the only First Lady in Africa you have already attracted enormous attention and interest. We now look forward to supporting actions that will save our elephants and other endangered species.
Kind Regards
[1] ELEPHANT CONSERVATION, ILLEGAL KILLING AND IVORY TRADE. CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIES OF WILD FAUNA AND FLORA. SC65 Doc. 42.1. http://www.cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/com/sc/65/E-SC65-42-01.pdf
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