The News
Tuesday 26 of November 2024

US investigator of ivory, rhino horn trade killed in Kenya


FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 8, 2016 file photo, Esmond Martin, an expert on the illegal ivory trade, attends a news conference at his home in Nairobi, Kenya. Kenya police and officials say Esmond Martin, the American investigator into the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade, has been found stabbed to death in his house in the Karen neighborhood. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga),FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 8, 2016 file photo, Esmond Martin, an expert on the illegal ivory trade, attends a news conference at his home in Nairobi, Kenya. Kenya police and officials say Esmond Martin, the American investigator into the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade, has been found stabbed to death in his house in the Karen neighborhood. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 8, 2016 file photo, Esmond Martin, an expert on the illegal ivory trade, attends a news conference at his home in Nairobi, Kenya. Kenya police and officials say Esmond Martin, the American investigator into the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade, has been found stabbed to death in his house in the Karen neighborhood. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga),FILE - In this Monday, Feb. 8, 2016 file photo, Esmond Martin, an expert on the illegal ivory trade, attends a news conference at his home in Nairobi, Kenya. Kenya police and officials say Esmond Martin, the American investigator into the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade, has been found stabbed to death in his house in the Karen neighborhood. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
Kenya police and officials say an American investigator into the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade has been found stabbed to death in his home. The head of criminal investigations in Nairobi says a family member went to Esmond Bradley Martin's house after he did not respond to phone calls and found the body on a bed with a stab wound to the neck.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya police and officials say an American investigator into the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade has been found stabbed to death in his home.

Nicolas Kamwende, head of criminal investigations in Nairobi, says a family member went to Esmond Bradley Martin’s house on Sunday to check on him after he did not respond to phone calls and found the body on a bed with a stab wound to the neck.

Conservationist Paula Kahumbu says Martin led investigations into the illegal trade of elephant ivory and rhino horn that threatens the two species with extinction. Kahumbu says he was at the forefront of exposing ivory traffickers in the U.S., Congo, Vietnam, Nigeria, Angola, China and recently Myanmar.