The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has initiated a search for three suspected poachers who fled an ambush in Tana River County, leaving behind a motorbike loaded with wildlife meat.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

The three managed to escape to Komorjila village, Tana North sub-county, as rangers arrived at the scene during an operation targeting illegal poaching and the sale of wild meat.

According to Tana River County Warden Bakari George, the operation began at around 8am after informants tipped off the service about poaching activity in the area.

“Today, around 8am, we got intelligence from our informants that there was illegal poaching in some area. We dispatched a team to lay an ambush so that we could find the suspects killing our wildlife. At the time our officers reached the area, they found a motorbike loaded with the illegal meat, but three suspects managed to escape,” Bakari stated.

📌 What You Need to Know

A team of officers was then dispatched to lay an ambush, with the aim of catching the suspects in the act of killing the animals.

When the poachers reached there, they found a motorbike loaded with illegal meat, but the three suspects managed to get away before they could be arrested.

The operation led to the seizure of 21 dik-dik carcasses, 20 dik-dik heads, 12 impala carcasses and the meat of three guinea fowl from the scene, as per images shared to  Kenyans.co.ke   by KWS.

The fleeing suspect also abandoned assorted weapons, namely two machetes and two slashers, all recovered alongside the motorbike.

Bakari revealed that KWS has had the area under investigation for a long time, since the Tana River is among the counties known for consuming wildlife meat.

The problem is also perennial, as Tana River snakes through a number of notable wildlife protected areas, such as  Kora National Park, Arawale National Reserve, Tana River Primate National Reserve, Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy ,  Ndera Community Conservancy and Tana River Delta Ramsar Site.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke