Page 26 - An Illusion of Complicity: Terrorism and the Illegal Ivory Trade in East Africa

II. A Flawed Narrative

THE EVIDENCE PRESENTED in Chapter I outlines the widespread acceptance of the Al-Shabaab–
ivory nexus. This narrative has been embraced by researchers, journalists and politicians,
and has captured the public imagination. It is beginning to have an impact on policy-making.
However, there are deep flaws with the two main components of the narrative that, firstly, Al-
Shabaab participates directly in poaching, and, secondly, that it traffics vast flows of ivory through
Somalia. Neither is supported by available evidence. This chapter challenges each position in turn.

Al-Shabaab and Poaching

Somalia and ethnic Somalis loom large in public statements on poaching in Kenya. Senior
Kenyan officials have for years labelled Somali gangs as the primary front-line culprits behind
the current spike in poaching. The Kenyan media, similarly, has publicised both recent cases and
the well-known history of Somali involvement in poaching in Kenya since the 1970s.1 Beyond
Kenya, in 2012 then-Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator John
Kerry, referenced ‘multiple reports’ of ‘armed men [crossing] … from Somalia into Kenya to
kill elephants’.2 The following year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) proffered a
similar assessment.3

This profile of Somali poaching has often been advanced as supporting evidence of Al-Shabaab
complicity. The EAL’s 2013 report, for instance, highlighted a 2007 case in which ‘Somali
bandits’ were apprehended en route to Tsavo National Park to support a broader picture of Al-
Shabaab involvement.4

Alone, such assessments run into a range of problems. What is often left unaddressed is whether
these poachers hail from Somalia itself or from Kenya’s large Somali diaspora, and whether
they are linked to Al-Shabaab or to one of the numerous other Somali militias and organised

1. Jonathan Mwanyindo, Kenfrey Kiberenge and Edith Fortunate, ‘State Links Somali Gangs to
Increased Wildlife Poaching’, Daily Nation, 20 January 2013; Kenfrey Kiberenge, ‘Six Elephants
Killed in Dawida Ranch, Taita Taveta’, Daily Nation, 26 April 2014. For the historical context
of Somali gangs poaching in Kenya, see Varun Vira and Thomas Ewing, ‘Ivory’s Curse: The
Militarization and Professionalization of Poaching in Africa’, Born Free USA/C4ADS, April 2014, p.
63.

2. See the opening statement of John F Kerry in ‘Ivory and Insecurity: The Global Implications
of Poaching in Africa’, Hearing Before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, 112th
Congress, 2nd Session, 24 May 2012.

3. UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), ‘Transnational Organized Crime in Eastern Africa: A Threat
Assessment’, September 2013, p. 33.

4. Nir Kalron and Andrea Crosta, ‘Africa’s White Gold of Jihad: Al-Shabaab and Conflict Ivory’,
Elephant Action League (EAL), January 2013, <http://elephantleague.org/project/africas-white-
gold-of-jihad-al-shabaab-and-conflict-ivory/>, accessed 17 August 2015.