Belgian teens charged in Kenya with wildlife trafficking over possession of ants worth €6,819
Two Belgian teenagers have been charged in Kenya with wildlife trafficking after authorities found them in possession of 5,000 ants
Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 19, appeared distressed during their court hearing in Nairobi following their arrest on April 5. Authorities discovered the ants carefully packed into 2,244 test tubes lined with cotton wool, allowing the insects to survive for extended periods.
The teenagers, arrested in Kenya’s Nakuru county, claimed they were unaware their actions violated the law, insisting they had collected the ants for amusement.
In a separate incident, two other individuals, Kenyan national Dennis Ng’ang’a and Vietnamese citizen Duh Hung Nguyen were arrested in Nairobi with an additional 400 ants and are facing similar charges of wildlife trafficking.
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) identified the trafficked ants as primarily messor cephalotes, a large, red-colored harvester ant indigenous to East Africa. Authorities believe the ants were destined for markets in Europe and Asia, where demand has grown significantly.
Conservation experts, including Philip Muruthi from the Africa Wildlife Foundation, warned that trafficking ants could have severe ecological and agricultural consequences, potentially spreading diseases in destination countries.
"The thing is, when you see a healthy forest, like Ngong forest, you don't think about what is making it healthy. It is the relationships all the way from the bacteria to the ants to the bigger things," Muruthi said.
The ants seized from the two cases have been valued at approximately one million Kenyan shillings (€6,819).
All four individuals remain in custody, with the case adjourned until April 23, pending pre-sentencing reports.
