NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenya has gone five years without a single recorded rhino poaching incident — a rare achievement in Africa’s fight against wildlife crime that the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) credits to high-tech surveillance, elite anti-poaching units, and strengthened inter-agency partnerships.
KWS director general Erustus Kanga said strict enforcement of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act 2013, which provides for life imprisonment or a fine of up to Sh20 million for poaching offences, has proved a powerful deterrent.
“We have embraced technology, built the capacity of our teams and intensified collaboration with other agencies. We are not giving poachers an opportunity to penetrate our areas,” Kanga said, adding that public awareness campaigns have also helped suppress demand for illegal rhino horn.
Kenya hosts the third-largest rhino population in Africa after South Africa and Namibia.
The 2020 national wildlife census counted 1,605 rhinos — 853 black, 750 southern white, and two critically endangered northern white rhinos.
Black rhino numbers remain a key concern, having plummeted from around 20,000 in the 1970s to fewer than 400 by 1987 due to rampant poaching. Intensive conservation efforts have since stabilised the population.
A new report, African and Asian Rhinoceroses—Status, Conservation and Trade, compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Traffic for the CITES secretariat, shows that poaching of African rhinos has steadily declined since 2021.
By the end of 2024, Africa’s total rhino population stood at 22,540 — 6,788 black rhinos (up 5.2 per cent from 2023) and 15,752 white rhinos (down 11.2 per cent). The continent-wide poaching rate fell to 2.15 per cent, the lowest since 2011.
IUCN director general Grethel Aguilar said the gains demonstrate the value of intelligence-led enforcement, community engagement, and secure habitats.
“Lasting impact demands sustained investment, political will and global collaboration to secure species’ survival,” she said.
While conservationists hail Kenya’s five-year streak as a model for other range states, they warn that emerging threats — from climate-driven habitat stress to shifting policy priorities and declining white rhino numbers elsewhere in Africa — could erode progress if vigilance falters.
