A Marsabit court has allowed the police to continue holding three suspects accused of wildlife trophy trafficking in order to complete investigations. Senior Resident Magistrate Mr. Simon Arome granted the application and gave the prosecution two days to finalise the investigations against Abudho Ali Katello, 33, Diya Sosa, 39, and Abdullahi Mohamed, 45. The trio, who were produced in court under tight security, were reportedly arrested on the night of July 28, this year, at the Karantina police barrier on the Isiolo-Moyale highway near Marsabit town in a lorry while transporting two game trophies suspected to be rhino horns. The accused did not take a plea, as the prosecution said that the investigating officers were still building up on the case. Granting the anticipatory bail application, the court ordered that the case against the three suspects be mentioned on August 2nd of this year. The prosecution told the court that Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) needed more time to also carry out analysis on the exhibits to ascertain whether they were genuine rhino horns or not, and also establish their value. The lorry, a Fuso Mitsubishi registration number KCZ 047W, in which the wildlife trophies were being transported, has since been seized and is being detained at the Marsabit police station.

Source: Kenya News Agency