We were accustomed to ivory smuggling (just a few days ago two poachers were sentenced in the hinterland of Kilifi to 7 years in prison for being found with 4 elephant tusks) and to the smuggling of rhino horns, which the Orientals consider aphrodisiacs (who knows if they are also aphrodisiacs in the way we would willingly stick them in them...), but never in our many years in Africa had we had to read and comment on news like this: a Kenyan couple, husband and wife, and their alleged accomplice, a postal worker, have been charged by the court at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport with smuggling live ants.
You got that right! The species is that of the so-called red "harvester ants," the "messor cephalotes," and no one, including the prosecution of the three, understood the reason for their illegal trade and especially what the alleged buyers are doing with the live ants. The proliferation of insect-based feeds and flours and creative, protein-packed recipes may cast some doubt.
In fact, Martin Nyota, his wife Rose Wairimu and Eunice Muthoni, a postal worker, in addition to illicit trafficking in live animal species, will have to answer for their attempted transport to China and France, Kenyan media reported. The three allegedly sold the insects for about $2,100 without, of course, permission from the Kenya Wildlife Service, the Kenyan wildlife protection agency, which among other things regulates the trade in non-domestic animal species.
The suspects denied the charges against them and were released on 50,000 shillings bail pending trial. During the investigation, investigators who had stopped the shipment of ants abroad found a veritable breeding farm of "harvesters" at the couple's home in the town of Gilgil, between Naivasha and Nakuru.
The prosecutor urged the court to speed up the process so that the ants still alive could be produced as evidence of the crime at trial. It is well known of the intelligence of these small but leathery insects, but they certainly won't be able to testify, waiting for someone from Paris or Beijing to show up to explain how in French gourmet restaurants they are cooked or what role they play in traditional Chinese medicine.