Poachers return to Tsavo East (The Horn, Autumn 2006)

After a trouble-free couple of years in Tsavo East, on Saturday 20 May the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) received reports of two black rhinos having been poached. Reinforcements were immediately sent in to help track and arrest the five-man gang.

In an intensive security operation lasting six days, the gang was tracked to the Roja Rangi area of Lamu District, on the Kenyan coast and, after a fierce fire exchange, three heavily armed rhino poachers were killed. The remaining two are thought to have escaped to Somalia under the cover of darkness.

KWS officers were able to recover the following items:

• two AK 47 assault rifles
• more than 200 rounds of ammunition
• the four poached black rhino horns

We are often asked whether it is right that a person should be shot and killed for being a poacher. Our answer is that poaching is illegal, that KWS rangers always attempt to arrest suspected criminals but that, in self-defence and when underfire, it is understandable that KWS rangers have to return fire, sometimes with fatal consequences. It would be far preferable to be able to capture poachers in order to gain intelligence about illegal trading routes, and better still to be able to educate people about the importance of conserving wildlife and habitat, and to develop sustainable livelihoods for them. With a fast-growing population, and increasing demands on resources, balancing the needs of people and wildlife is only going to become harder.

Cathy Dean
Director