KWS trains force to arrest runaway crime

The Kenya Wildlife Service is training a special inter-unit force to fight poachers.

The force that will draw officers from General Service Unit (GSU), Regular Police and KWS has reported at Manyani Law Enforcement Academy for a quick bonding and induction course before being dispatched to Tsavo, Isiolo and Narok.

After the course, the officers will be under the command of KWS chiefs who are well versed with wildlife management and operations.

A source privy to the plans at the institution said the officers had already reported but could not tell when they would be deployed.

“This is an induction and bonding because all of them are well trained personnel and we do not expect them to stay here for long,” the source, who sought anonymity for protocol reasons, said.

This comes at a time when Tsavo conservation area is a few years away from losing its glory of being the best game destination in East and Central Africa due to insecurity.

Increased elephant poaching has tainted the park management’s credibility and  particularly when they allowed illegal livestock grazing to thrive in the facility.

Tsavo conservation area Assistant Director Robert Obrien said trouble started last year when thousands of grazers flocked into the park in search of pasture.

The grazers use adjacent private ranches as their hideouts following land leases that some of them signed with the ranchers.

More than 130 elephants have been killed and their tusks removed this year.

Plans are also underway to use drones in the fight against poaching in and out of protected areas within the Tsavo.