LEADING IVORY INVESTIGATOR STABBED TO DEATH IN HIS KENYA HOME
▶ Police believe he was killed in a botched robbery at his Nairobi house
One of the world’s leading investigators into the illegal ivory trade was found stabbed to death at his home in Kenya.
American Esmond Bradley Martin was found on Sunday by his wife, Chryssee Martin, also an ivory investigator, with a stab wound to the neck in Langata, a suburb of Nairobi. He was 75.
Kenyan police believe Bradley Martin was killed during a botched robbery.
“We have already questioned a gardener and a cook who are employed at the home,” Nairobi directorate of criminal investigations boss Ireri Kamwende told the Kenyan newspaper The
Star. But he said the force had yet to identify the attackers.
Bradley Martin moved to Kenya in the 1970s at a time when there was a surge in the number of elephants being killed for ivory. This was followed in the 1980s by the slaughter of many rhinos for their horns.
His research was key to China’s decision to ban the sale of rhino horns in 1993 and later to ban all ivory sales, from the beginning of this year.
He said last year that the end of the legal ivory trade in China meant elephants had “distinctly improved” chances of survival.
“We must give credit to China for doing the right thing by closing the ivory trade,” he told The Star.
Bradley Martin risked his life to document the illegal ivory trade and had travelled to China, Vietnam and Laos posing as a buyer to find out current prices of black market ivory. His most recent research had been focused on how the illegal ivory trade had moved to the countries around China after the ban.
The geographer had just returned home to Kenya from a research trip to Myanmar and had been writing up his findings when he was killed.
Bradley Martin discussed his work in an interview with Nomad magazine last year. He said: “In Kenya, there were about 20,000 rhinos in 1970, but by the 1990s, most of the rhinos had been eliminated. The puzzle was why were all these rhinos being killed, and where was the horn going?”
His death has shocked Africa’s conservation community.
Yesterday, Dr Paula Kahumbu, chief executive of Kenyan elephant protection organisation WildlifeDirect, tweeted: “It is with deep shock and horror that we learn this morning of the death of long time conservationist, Esmond Bradley Martin, whom police say died in suspicious circumstances at his home in Karen, Nairobi. Esmond led investigations into ivory and rhino horn trafficking.
“Esmond was at the forefront of exposing the scale of ivory markets in USA, Congo, Nigeria, Angola, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos and recently Myanmar. He always collaborated with Save the Elephants and worked with us generously sharing his findings and views.
“He was a global authority on ivory and rhino horn trafficking. We send our deepest condolences to his wife. RIP Esmond, pachyderms have lost a great champion.”
The UN’s environment programme tweeted: “The fight to save our wildlife has lost one of its most committed soldiers. Esmond Bradley Martin had served as the @UN Special Envoy on rhino conservation.”
Bradley Martin is the second illegal ivory investigator to die in East Africa in less than a year.
In August, Wayne Lotter, a prominent South African conservationist who had helped to jail poachers and traffickers for years, was murdered in Tanzania. The 51-year-old, who had received death threats because of his work, was shot dead in a taxi while travelling from Dar Es Salaam airport to a hotel.
Bradley Martin is the second illegal ivory sales investigator to die in East Africa in less than a year