MCCR/E235/2025 Maralal - Republic vs. Ltamasin Lesamana and Ltaeni Lesamana
June 26th, 2026.
It could have gone either way, but a Maralal court has found two men guilty of possession of 7 pieces of ivory weighing 11.3 kg. Principal Magistrate Victor Asiyo found Ltamasin Lesamana and Ltaeni Lesamana guilty of the offence after they were found in room A#8 at the Miracle Guest House in Maralal in the early morning of October 5th, 2026.
The accused were sentenced for being in possession of the tusks and sentenced to pay a fine of 3 million shillings (USD $23,000) or in default, serve 5 years in jail. They were acquitted of dealing in wildlife trophies.
The trial had four witnesses including an employee of the Miracle Guest House. He stated that the night before the arrest, an unknown man paid for two rooms A#6 and A#8, telling the witness that there were going to be two men staying in each room. The unknown male paid electronically and was given both sets of keys. The witnesses testimony then skipped to the next morning when he saw some men, including the one who payed for the rooms, being led away by authorities. Two men were in handcuffs but the man who had paid for the room was not. The witness stated that the ivory was in a bag that came out of room A#6.
A policeman who was supporting the KWS operation, stated that the arrest team was split into two groups, one for each room. He went to room A#8 and found 3 men. The two suspects were arrested and handcuffed and ivory recovered under the bed.
The two KWS officers stated that acting upon intelligence received on October 4th, they raided rooms at the Miracle Guest House. They went to room A#8 where they arrested the two suspects who had ivory, 2 knives, 2 rungus, a hack saw, and a motorcycle outside.
The presiding judge mentioned the contradiction between witnesses over which room the ivory had been found in and chose to rule on KWS’s behalf. But clearly there were other persons found in the rooms, besides the two arrested suspects, including the male who booked the room and whose name and phone number would have been known through the electronic payment. This individual was either someone higher up the criminal food chain or a KWS facilitator/informant.
The two year court monitoring study found that integrity of investigations and the possibility of KWS entrapment to be real vulnerabilities in ivory prosecutions. In this particular case, the lack of detail opens up questions as to what really occurred. The identity of the male who paid for the rooms or the ownership of the motorcycle may have assisted in assessing the facts of the case. In regards to the motorcycle, KWS stated they could not ascertain as they had not received a response from the government agency responsible.
In this particular prosecution, and while not indicating that the accused were not guilty, KWS found a magistrate that overlooked ambiguities to rule in their favour. This will not always happen and this verdict could easily have gone the other way. KWS has to do better.
On a positive note, Magistrate Asiyo received as evidence the expert report from Dr. Mwebi of the National Museum of Kenya on the status of the ivory without his testimony. SEEJ-AFRICA, in their court monitoring report, had questioned the necessity and cost of having these expert witnesses testifying in cases where the substance of the ivory was not a contested issue.
The trial also took place in under a year which is also an excellent sign.
Original story at https://www.seej-africa.org/2025/10/06/maralal-two-arrested-with-11-33-kg-ivory/
