The Kenya Revenue Authority in collaboration with the Royal Malaysia Customs have impounded a container with elephant tusks weighing about two tonnes with an estimated valued of Sh120 million at the Port Klang Harbour in Malaysia.

In a press conference yesterday, commissioner for customs services Wambui Namu, the ECMU 2179525 container originated from the port of Mombasa and was destined for Cambodia’s Beach Resort area of Sihanaukville.

“The impounded container has been confirmed to be among those which KRA issued an international alert early this month,” Namu said. “It is through commitment to collaborative effort in intelligence networking that the container was impounded by the Royal Malaysia Customs on Tuesday,” Namu said.

Namu said the container had been profiled after an earlier seizure by KRA of 87 elephant tusks at the inland container depot in Nairobi last month. “Our officers profiled other suspect containers associated with the concerned importer, exporter and clearing agent in an effort to establish the importer’s risk profile,” Namu said, noting that the process had led to another seizure of 465 tusks at the Port of Mombasa.

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