The battle to save our world’s species is seemingly a lost cause. Back in 2013 the Kenyan government set the penalty for poaching as a life sentence or a massive $200,000 fine.
That proved to be better than nothing as poaching of rhinos went down by 85% and the poaching of elephants decreased by 78%.
Kenya is home to animals such as giraffes, rhinos, elephants and cheetahs, all of which are at threat from poaching. The current punishments served to poachers are not enough of a deterrent. In 2017 nine rhinos and 69 elephants were killed through poaching which “virtually cancels out the overall population’s growth rate” claimed Save the Rhino organisation to The Independent. Therefore Kenya have seen it right to up the punishment to the death penalty.
I personally am sick of the continuous exploitation of our endangered species and believe that anything to keep them alive should be done. If this puts more off from poaching then that can only be a good thing.
Kenya has already been the location of a devastating event as the last male northern white rhino Sudan died in its Old Pejeta Conservancy. This was wide spread news with many misinterpreting the death as the extinction of all rhino species (I’ve no idea where people got that from either) as well as many, including the media, not understanding the white rhinoceros is still well and thriving as many southern white rhinos are left throughout Africa and in captivity all over the world.
Kenya is one of the four countries that make up home to 98.8% of the world’s population of white rhinos. Even with the increasing population of southern white rhinos from a handful at the end of the 19th century to over 20,000 at present, the escalating poaching has kept this species on the red list as Near Threatened.
More information on the state of endangered animals as well as everything else can be found at: