House team accuses anti-poaching task force of shoddy work

Richard Lesiyampe, the principal secretary for Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Mr Lesiyampe on Thursday confirmed to the Nation that he had sent auditors to Nema headquarters in Nairobi. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Environment PS faulted MPs for accusing China of promoting poaching by buying game trophies, saying blame games would not help address the problem.
  • The MPs said those who control sales of the wild animal products have continued to enjoy freedom.

A parliamentary team has accused a task force appointed to investigate rising cases of poaching in the country of doing a shoddy job.

The National Assembly’s Environment Committee, chaired by Amina Abdalla, told Environment Principal Secretary Richard Lesiyampe, that the task force's report lacked important details that would have taken the war against poaching to the next level.

The committee members challenged Dr Lesiyampe and the task force's chairman, Dr Nehemiah Rotich, to provide statistics to support their assertion that the poaching menace was not bad enough to be declared a national disaster.

“You are not giving us tangible information to move this process ahead, yet Parliament had given you appropriate legislation and funds. What you are telling us is general information. We are back to square one without figures,” the chairperson said.

The MPs cited the recently enacted Wildlife Conservation and Management Act, saying its implementation was poor yet it had answers to many challenges bedevilling wildlife management.

They accused the government of duping the public that the country had lost few wild animals to poachers compared with those being introduced into the game parks.

NAME THE KINGPINS

Rangwe MP George Oner and Kwale County Women Representative Zainab Chidzuga challenged the PS and Dr Rotich to name the kingpins behind the illegal trade in wildlife products, saying it was to blame for the increased poaching.

The MPs said those who control the trade in wild animal products were still free yet they are the ones who recruit more poachers to replace those who have either been arrested or killed.

But the PS and Dr Rotich maintained that they had shared sensitive information with other relevant State departments for further investigations.

“We are keen to reverse the poaching menace. But, if we have no evidence, we can’t put names of people in a report. Some have even linked the KWS personnel with poaching. This is very unfortunate yet the staff is relentlessly fighting the vice,” he said.

The PS faulted MPs for accusing China of promoting poaching by buying game trophies, saying blame games would not help address the problem.

‘BAD ELEMENTS WITHIN KWS’

“Poaching is not done by countries. These are criminals dealing with the heinous business. We have dealt with bad elements within KWS,” he said.

Dr Rotich said the government should promote inter-agency cooperation by bringing on board other players to fight poaching instead of relying too much on the KWS personnel whose mandate is limited to the sanctuaries.

Most of the wild animals, he said, are killed outside the national parks and he urged that communities living near parks be involved to assist in protecting wild animals.

“The wild animals spend 70 per cent of their time outside the parks. Poaching within the parks is low. We need to reorganise the system and attend to areas outside the parks,” said Dr Rotich.

He said some unscrupulous traders were engaged in commercial poaching, selling wild meat to unsuspecting members of the public in the guise that it was from domestic animals.