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{
    "id": 552017,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/552017/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 232,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "that some people in the Board of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) are accomplices in this. Whether the KWS use its officers or not cannot be explained. The level of poaching continues unabated every month despite all the pledges. Every day, we hear that thousands of tonnes of ivory have been found in Mombasa, Singapore, and other places. How many animals are those? The KWS is an institution that has failed. However, I am glad that recently the Board appointed one prominent Kenyan, Dr. Leakey, to be the Chairperson. During his days, the KWS was being run properly. I hope he brings back sense to the institution. If I were Dr. Leakey, I would not sit in the Board with the people who were there before. I would demand that they go and an audit of the officers of the KWS be done because in the recent years, there has been reshuffle. They have been trying to get rid of people who have experience in matters of security in the KWS. Not less than 30 senior people, particularly from pastoralist communities, who have extensive experience in matters of wildlife, trained during the time of Dr. Leakey were suspended, expelled, removed or fired by the Board in the last two years. The reasons are unexplained but many of us could guess. They wanted to get these people out of the way. That is why you see poaching at the level that it is today. Madam Temporary Speaker, I urge the President to form a national taskforce to investigate this matter. He should form an inquiry into poaching in this country. As the Senate, we must demand that the President establishes an inquiry into poaching in this country because this is no longer regular but unusual. Having said that, the KWS must appreciate that the lives of Kenyans are more important than the lives of wild animals. You cannot equate the lives of animals to the lives of human beings and start killing people for sport and punishing them simply because you suspect them. There is law and order. If you suspect someone, you should arrest him and take him to court. There is no institution in this country – the KWS or any other institution, be it the police or wherever they are – that has the mandate to shoot to kill. That is illegal. It is the law of the jungle. Unfortunately, in our country, extrajudicial killings by our security forces annually exceeds – if you read reports by international human rights groups – the number of people killed by criminals in this country especially in the last few years--- Where are we headed to when we start shooting and killing our people extrajudiciously when there are courts of law? The Constitution is very clear that you have to establish evidence. If they have to be hanged, let the Government do so after due process has been followed. This kind of action by the KWS is inimical to its interests. If the KWS is concerned about conservation, the fact that it harasses people including torturing, killing and kidnapping means that the public, the people or the communities who live next to the parks will start getting concerned. They will lose interest and start to develop negative attitudes towards wildlife conservation. They will start killing animals. Is that what the KWS wants; that communities residing in areas neighbouring parks to start turning on the animals since they suffer because of the animals? Madam Temporary Speaker, Meru National Park is notorious for one thing, wildlife there has been destroying agricultural crops in many areas like Tharaka-Nithi and many other areas in the neighbourhood. The KWS should be ashamed because the park The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}