Kenyan court jails Chinese man in ant-smuggling case

A Kenyan court on Wednesday ordered a Chinese man to pay a fine of 1 million shillings ($7,746) and gave him a 12-month jail term for trying to smuggle live ants out of the country.

Subscribe to read this story ad-free

Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.

The magistrate in the case said a stiff sentence was needed as a deterrent given a spate of cases in Kenya of ant-trafficking.

It serves markets, such as China, where enthusiasts have paid large sums to maintain ant colonies in large transparent vessels known as formicariums that allow them to study the species’ complex social structures and behaviours.

Chinese national Zhang Kequn was arrested last month at Nairobi’s main international airport with more than 2,200 live garden ants in his luggage.

Zhang’s lawyer said he would appeal against his sentence.

He initially pleaded not guilty to charges including dealing in live wildlife species but later changed his plea to guilty.

“Noting the increasing and rising cases of dealing in large quantities of garden ants and the negative ecological side effects of massive harvesting, there is a need for a stiff deterrent,” magistrate Irene Gichobi said.

A Kenyan man, Charles Mwangi, was also charged in the case, accused of supplying the ants to Zhang.

Mwangi has pleaded not guilty and is out on bail. His case was not before the court on Wednesday.

Last year four men were fined 1 million shillings each for trying to traffic thousands of ants. Wildlife experts said at the time that the case signalled a shift in biopiracy from trophies like elephant ivory to lesser-known species.