Meru court fines man found selling poached antelope meat

Lesser kudu antelopes. A court in Meru has fined a 40-year old man Sh200,000 after he pleaded guilty to selling game meat from a poached lesser kudu. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Ruiri Chief Janerose Mugwika spotted him in Ribui village ferrying the meat in a sack.
  • The meat had been chopped into pieces of about half a kilogramme and wrapped in newspaper.
  • Local administrators and locals charged with monitoring activities in the forest suspected that he was engaged in poaching.

A court in Meru has fined a 40-year old man Sh200,000 after he pleaded guilty to selling game meat.

Mr Silas Murithi admitted hawking the meat of an antelope (lesser kudu) which he had hunted from the nearby Lower Imenti Forest on Sunday.

Ruiri Chief Janerose Mugwika spotted him in Ribui village ferrying the meat in a sack.

The meat had been chopped into pieces of about half a kilogramme and wrapped in newspaper.

POACHING

The court heard that local administrators and locals charged with monitoring activities in the forest suspected that he was engaged in poaching.

Meru Senior Resident Magistrate Evans Mbicha ruled that Mr Murithi should serve a one-year imprisonment if he did not raise the fine.

And in a Maua court, an elderly woman was charged with illegally collecting firewood worth Sh300 in a gazetted government forest.

Ms Purity Kawira appeared before Maua Senior Resident Magistrate Oscar Wanyaga and was charged that on December 17, 2018, she was found illegally taking firewood from Ngaya Forest in Igembe North.