• The ivory was concealed in a sack of maize
• The consignment was from Kitale
Image: ANDREW KASUKU
Two suspects will appear in court today after they were yesterday arrested at Mwembe Tayari in Mombasa with ivory concealed in a sack of maize.
Acting on intelligence, the Kenya Wildlife Service officers laid a trap at the bus terminal and nabbed suspects Japheth Bakari and Samo Ali after they alighted from Kitale.
Police could not immediately establish the value of the eight pieces of ivory weighing 8kg.
Ali, a 25-year-old second-year student from Moi University, Kitale campus, said he did not know the maize sack had ivory in it. He said he was travelling to Mombasa to meet his family.
"This is a warning to other people who think they can kill our animals and escape the law," Mombasa police commander Johnstone Ipara said.
He was briefing journalists at Central Police Station where the two are held.
Coast KWS conservation assistant director Arthur Tuda said Mombasa is a central point by traffickers to market their illegal animal trophies.
Tuda said the elephants could have been killed in Mt Elgon.
In December last year, police in Kaloleni arrested a man with 11 pieces of ivory weighing 55kg at a forest in Tsangatsini, Kaloleni, Kilifi county.
Mombasa is used both as a destination and transit route of animal parts as smugglers compromise some control agencts at the Mombasa Port in order to transact business.