The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) announced the development at an event at Amboseli National Park to mark World Elephant Day 2020, creating awareness on the threats to African and Asian elephants, such as habitat loss, land use pressure, illegal killings of elephants.

 

KWS has revealed that while there were only 16,000 elephants in Kenya in 1989, the number grew to 34,800 by the end of 2019. According to tourism minister, Najib Balala, the situation has been helped by the fact that the country has managed to "tame" poaching in recent years, by issuing greater fines and stronger jail terms for those convicted of the offense. As a result, seven elephants have been poached in Kenya in 2020, compared with 34 in 2019 and 80 in 2018.