Senior Kenya Wildlife Services detective Charles Inoti shocked a Kibera Court after he turned up to testify in how notorious suspected poachers were arrested with multiple elephant tusks.
Inoti, who has in the previous years played a critical role in the war against poaching displayed cases to court of the said tusks and narrated on how the accused persons were arrested.
He told the court that On the evening of June 26th, 2017, officers from the Special Crimes Prevention Unit received information of a property in the Utawala Estate, Nairobi, where a quantity of ivory was located. Utawala Estate is located just north of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
SCPU officers maintained surveillance on the property until the next morning when they conducted a search as two persons were about to leave. The resulting search found 217 kg of cut ivory, much of it already wrapped, along with scales, cutting equipment and packaging materials.
He told the court that the operation led to the arrest of five men and property and a pickup vehicle seized.
Our investigations shows that four of the five had with employment ties to Jomo Kenyatta Airport.
A sixth male and the alleged ring leader, Abdinur Ibrahim Ali, was arrested a short time later off site.
Inoti also told the court that, a seventh man, a Somali national and Mozambique resident, Ahmed Mohamud Salah alias Ahmed Mahabub Gedi, was arrested a few days later while attempting to flee Kenya at the Namanga border crossing.
As he was testifying in court, the accused persons were present and were represented by their respective lawyers.
They are currently out on bond.
Those in court were released on bail except one who is still on the run.
“After the accused persons were arrested , they were processed and arraigned to the court to face the respective charges,” Inoti told the court.
The photos of the said tusks are shown below