14 DAY TRIAL // Kenya is currently dealing with a serious poaching crisis. In fact, it appears that wildlife rangers in this part of the world are just now trying to track down and capture a group of poachers that have massacred four of the country's rhinos during the weekend.
Wishing to scare such illegal hunters into staying away from Kenya's rhinos and elephants, high officials in the country's parliament have decided to implements a series of emergency measures.
Thus, they have upped fines by as much as 2,500% and jail time by a whopping 700%.
As Mongabay details, this means that those found guilty of poaching risk being made to pay a fine of $120,000 (€93,051).
What's more, they could find themselves spending about 15 years behind bars.
When asked to comment on the Kenyan parliament's decision to roll out these emergency measures, Chachu Ganya, MP for North Horr, made the following observations:
“Kenya's elephants declined from 160,000 in 1960s to 16,000 in 1989 due to poaching. Today Kenya is home to only 38,500 elephants and 1,025 rhinos.”
“These animals are a major tourism attraction and anyone who threatens them is committing economic sabotage and should be treated as such,” he later added.
Conservationists explain that Kenya and several other countries have sparked the poachers' interest because illegal markets in South Asia are currently experiencing an increase in tusks and horns demand.
These animal body parts are grinded into a fine powder and then used as medicine, despite the fact that there is no scientific evidence in support of the claim that they have curative properties.
Since the beginning of 2013, a total of 117 elephants and 21 rhinos have been slaughtered by poachers in Kenya.
One can only hope that these measures taken by the Kenyan parliament will help wildlife rangers gain some control of the situation.
As conservationist Paula Kahumbu put it, “The passing of this bill is a huge victory, it is the strongest message from the Government of Kenya on the commitment to preserve our national heritage.”
“MPs today voted for Kenya to restore her position as a global leader in wildlife conservation.”