Plans to fast-track legislation to introduce the death penalty for convicted poachers have been announced by Kenyan authorities. It is part of the country’s strategy to try and end the illegal hunting of wildlife.
The announcement was made by the Kenyan minister of tourism and wildlife, Najib Balala, and will be the most extreme penalty for poaching in the world. “We have in place the Wildlife Conservation Act that was enacted in 2013, and which fetches offenders a life sentence or a fine of US$200 000 (€171 578),” said Balala. “However, this has not been deterrence enough to curb poaching, hence the proposed stiffer sentence.”
TourismUpdate.co.za reports that in recent years, poaching has dropped considerably after new punishments were enacted and enforcement tactics were improved. “These efforts led to an 85% reduction in rhino poaching and a 78% reduction in elephant poaching, respectively, in 2017 compared to when poaching was at its peak in 2013 and 2012 respectively,” Balala said.
However, because many animal populations were driven to endangered status over the past few decades, any amount of poaching poses an existential threat. According to Save The Rhino, even though rhino poaching has decreased, the population is still dropping, with an estimated three rhinos being poached every day across Africa.
This hard-line motion has been met with mixed reactions. Some in the industry, including leading conservationists, fear that this “violent approach risks aggravating already poor relations between people living in and around protected areas”, and suggest that capital punishment should apply only to leaders of criminal syndicates, who drive the illegal poaching of wildlife and benefit the most from selling animal products.
Supporters of the motion feel this is the only route to tackling what has become an emergency situation in Kenya. More than 1,500 bird species, for example, are endangered, and 50% of all individual animals have been lost over the past few decades. Also, over the past year alone, 69 elephants out of a population of 34 000, and nine rhinos from a population of under 1 000, were killed. This includes two black rhinos and a calf being poached in Kenya’s Meru National Park last month.
