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Kenya moves pile of ivory to the capital ahead of mass burning

Kenya

A stock pile of ivory and rhino horns arrived in the Kenyan capital on Friday at the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) headquarters ahead of the world’s largest burn that will take place on April 30, during the Giant Summit which the country is hosting.

The mass burning of the vast majority of its ivory and rhino horn stockpile will amount to over 100 tonnes of ivory, seven times the size of any ivory stockpile destroyed so far, as well as 1.35 tonnes of rhino horn.

Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) director, General Kitili Mbathi said the ivory will be set on fire in protest against the continued slaughter of the country’s most iconic species.

“On April 30, His Excellency will be hosting a state function to burn 105 tonnes of ivory and 1.35 tonnes of rhino horn. It will be the biggest burn in the world to date and to put it into perspective, last year we had the biggest burn which was 15 tonnes and this is 105 tonnes plus 1.35 tonnes of rhino horn,” said Mbathi.

The consignment were under high security by the KWS wardens. All the horn from various towns had been registered by KWS and further went through a verification process conducted by auditing and assurance firms who are keeping track of the quantities being moved.

“We inventoried 135 tonnes of ivory and 1.5 tonnes of rhino horns, so all of this has been digitised, a photo of each rhino piece taken and is in a secure server at the KWS headquarters,” said Patrick Omondi, Deputy Director for Endangered Species at KWS.

Reuters

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