Kenya Destroys its vast ivory stockpile, LARGEST to be Burnt by any Country in the World

KENYA: President Uhuru Kenyatta set on fire what has been put on record as the world's biggest ivory bonfire, after demanding a total ban on trade in tusks and horns to end "murderous" trafficking and prevent the extinction of elephants in the wild.

The stockpile was burnt a day after President Kenyatta launched the Giants Club summit in Nanyuki where he declared that “To lose our elephants would be to lose a key part of the heritage that we hold in trust. Quite simply, we will not allow it.”

Accompanied by the Gabon president Ali Bongo, President Uhuru Kenyatta torched 105 tonnes of ivory, a haul that is equivalent to 65,000 elephants.

READ: US Government Congratulates Malawi on Their Move To Burning $7.5Million Worth Of Ivory.

Eleven giant pyres of tusks, and another of rhino horns, are arranged in a semi-circle now expected to burn for days in Nairobi's national park.

Huge plumes of smoke spiralled high into the sky, with thousands of litres of diesel and kerosene injected though steel pipes buried in the ground leading into the heart of the pyramids to fuel the blaze.

Renowned conservationist Richard Leakey urged Africa and other nations to destroy their ivory stocks too.

To those who refused, he said: "They are speculators on an evil, illegal commodity. There are can be no justification for speculating price rises in ivory down the road."

Pledges last year by China and the United States, two of the biggest ivory markets, to enact almost complete bans on imports and exports have helped drive ivory prices lower.

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But rhino horn prices are still rising, conservationists say.

Africa is home to between 450,000 and 500,000 elephants, but more than 30,000 are killed every year on the continent to satisfy demand for ivory in Asia, where raw tusks sell for around $1,000 (800 euros) a kilo (2.2 pounds).

Kenya has a long history of ivory burnings, spearheading a wider movement of public demonstrations across the world, but nothing on this scale before.

READ: World's Biggest Burning of IVORY Set to Take Place Later this month in Kenya

On the black market, such a quantity of ivory could sell for over $100 million, and the rhino horn could raise as much as $80 million.

Rhino horn can fetch as much as $60,000 per kilo — more than gold or cocaine.

Kenya alone had 20,000 rhinos in the 1970s, falling to 400 in the 1990s.

It now has almost 650 black rhinos. The country is protecting the last three northern white rhinos as scientists race against time to find artificial reproduction techniques.

Poachers in Kenya can sell the horns of a single dead rhino for the equivalent of about $50,000 (Sh5 million) in local markets, earning in one night what would take them many years in regular employment.