Kenya arrests two suspected rhino horn traders
Date: 10-Dec-01
Country: KENYA
A second person was arrested on suspicion of storing the horns at his home, KWS said in a statement.
Four black rhino carcasses were found stripped of their horns in Tsavo National Park in late November. It was the first time in eight years that poachers had ventured inside one of Kenya's national parks to attack the endangered species.
KWS said it had arrested one person at a hotel in the coastal resort of Mombasa last week afternoon.
"The suspect arrived at a Mombasa hotel in a hired taxi where he was to sell his wares when the KWS personnel pounced on him and arrested him," KWS said.
"This has lead to the arrest of another suspect in whose house the horns had been hidden," it added.
Kenya's black rhino population has fallen to about 460 from an estimated 20,000 in 1970, mainly due to poaching. Authorities have managed to control poaching more recently by concentrating the rhinos in smaller areas, making it easier to protect them.
KWS said Africa's black rhino numbers have fallen dramatically in the last three decades. A population of 65,000 in 1970 has dwindled to around 2,700, mainly concentrated in Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia.
