A Vietnamese national was arrested on Monday at Kenya’s main airport for illegal possession of lion and warthog products, local Standard newspaper reports.
Truong Trung Hieu was on transit in Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport from Liberia to Bankok, when security personnel detected the contraband wildlife products.
Hieu was detained by the local police, and will be arraigned in court on Tuesday.
The arrest comes less than two weeks after the UK government pledged to help African governments fight illegal wildlife trade.
The UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Jeremy Hunt, earlier this month announced a new British initiative to target the traffickers by helping countries in Africa and Asia to launch investigations and seize assets.
He lamented the worrying drop in numbers of wildlife, saying future generations may only have to read about them in books as they would be extinct.
“The magnificent wildlife that humanity has inherited – the animals that enliven our imaginations, enhance the beauty of the world and provide livelihoods for millions of people – are disappearing with terrifying speed. We have lost two thirds of Africa’s elephants since the 1970s. We are down to the last 80,000 giraffes and the final 20,000 lions. The world’s tiger population has dropped by 95% in the last century,” Hunt said.
Also, in a visit to London earlier this month, Kenya’s First Lady Margaret Kenyatta affirmed Kenya’s leadership and commitment to eradicate illegal trade in wildlife across the world.
According to the World Bank, the same criminal networks that traffic the body parts of wild animals may also deal in guns and drugs and people.
While being arraigned in court on Tuesday, the arrested Vietnamese national will need a translator as he does not understand English or Swahili, Kenya’s official languages.
