KWS officers are hunting for a group of poachers who killed a 20- year - elephant in the heavily guarded Aberdare National Park and tusks chopped off.
The five poachers entered through the electric fence of the park on Saturday evening before gunning down the 1.5 tonnes jumbo.
They later chopped off the two tusks before the Kenya Wildlife Service rangers met them in the act yesterday in the morning hours.
A gun fire ensured inside the forest before the suspected poachers managed to escape with gun wounds according to the KWS assistant director mountain conservation Aggrey Maumo.
Maumo who spoke to journalists at the scene said the poachers had not carried away the trophies as they were found in the act.
Two firearms of types 458 and 375 were recovered. An axe, clothes, three bags, a poisoned arrow were also recovered at the scene.
The five poachers escaped with gun wounds and the rangers are still pursuing them. He urged members of public to report anybody who will be seen with gun wounds.
Mumo said this is the third elephant to be killed by poachers this year. Two week ago another elephant was killed in the same forest. He said they will not rest until the poachers are killed.