Port officials seize another ivory haul

Another ivory haul was seized at the port of Mombasa on Monday — only a week after another one was impounded.

One of the elephant tusks was seven feet long, indicating that it was extracted from an old elephant. The rest of the pieces were five and above feet.

Kenya Revenue Authority senior assistant commissioner Fatuma Yusuf said the illegal cargo was intercepted at the port’s scanning section.

“According to documents we have, the container carried 240 bags of groundnuts but upon scanning, ivory was discovered hidden in between the bags,” she said.

The documents seen by the media showed the importer of the cargo is Chuan Enterprises of Malaysia while the exporter is indicated as Fresh Produce of Nairobi.

Seagate Freighters Ltd is indicated in the documents as the clearing agent.

Ms Fatuma said the cargo was packed within Mombasa.

Kenya Wildlife Service Coast assistant director Arthur Tuda said the length of most of the tusks indicated that they belonged to the Savana species of elephants.

They are very long

“These tusks seem to be from Savana elephants, which are spread between Central, East and South Africa. They are very long and were extracted from elephants as old as 50 years or more,” he said.

He said there was increased vigilance from security agencies around the port following recent seizure of containers with contraband goods.

The verification was to proceed last evening until all the suspicious containers had been opened. The value of the cargo will be announced on Tuesday.

The seizure comes barely a week after another container with 1,478 kilos of ivory was intercepted at the port.