By Seth Odongo
If Kenya was tourism conscious society, the tusks set to be burnt ought to have been preserved in a national wildlife museum or a memorial for public viewing. This would not just raise awareness on the tragedy of poaching but tourists – domestic and international – visiting such sites will pay, earning the country the money we need to fight poaching.
School children visiting such sifts will be disgusted. Rather than burn the ivory, we need to go back to the wild and get the carcasses of the elephants that were killed, and ‘dry’ them or ‘freeze’ them then enclose them in transparent glass cubes for public viewing.
Every Ivory snatched from a poacher should be piled and preserved in a heavily protected museum. The government would then employ tour guides (direct source of employment) and our enterprising citizens will open food kiosks and sell artificial merchandise therein. That’s how economy grows alongside historical artifact development.
To burn ivory in this day and age is to do so simply for sentimental value.
As a country, we are just starting to develop our history. 100 years from now those who will dwell here will mostly likely be dismayed that we denied them an opportunity to learn from our conservation struggles. Let’s preserve ivory, rather than burn them!
I wait for a riveting counter-argument.
