Single queen ant for Sh28,000: Ichung’wah calls for training as smuggling surges

Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung'wah. /SCREENGRAB

National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung'wah has called for specialised training of forest rangers to counter a growing wave of smuggling involving exotic insects, warning that the trade is rapidly evolving beyond traditional wildlife crimes.

Recent arrests of foreigners found with hundreds—sometimes thousands—of live ants have exposed a troubling shift in trafficking patterns, from high-profile mammals to lesser-known but commercially valuable species.

The cases have raised concern among policymakers and conservation agencies about the country’s preparedness to detect and disrupt this emerging strand of bio-piracy.

In April 2025, four men pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle hundreds of highly sought-after ants out of Kenya, marking the country’s first recorded case of insect-related bio-piracy.

According to the Kenya Wildlife Service, the contraband included giant African harvester ants destined for exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia, where a single queen ant can fetch up to $220 (about Sh28,400).

The suspects—two Belgians, a Vietnamese national and a Kenyan—were each sentenced to one year in prison or fined $7,700 (Sh994,000).

The trend has persisted. On April 15, a Nairobi court sentenced a Chinese national to one year in prison or a Sh1 million fine after he was caught attempting to smuggle more than 2,000 live queen garden ants through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

The suspect had been arrested a month earlier while preparing to board a flight to China.

Delivering the ruling, Judge Irene Gichobi emphasised the need for tougher deterrent sentences, citing the “rising cases of dealing in large quantities of garden ants” and the potential ecological consequences of removing key species from their natural habitats.

Speaking on the floor of the House, Ichung’wah warned that the lucrative nature of the trade is attracting local participation, with some individuals reportedly abandoning conventional farming to breed ants for illegal export.

He argued that inadequately trained forest officers may fail to recognise the scale and sophistication of the trade, allowing traffickers to operate undetected.

"I'm told there are those who are breeding ants in our forests. You know Hon Speaker the most lucrative illegal trade today in smuggling is not of elephant tusks, it's for small animals called ants," he said.

"So we are seeing illegal activities and therefore a forest officer who is not well trained may not understand that that queen ant trading at $220, somebody breeding those insects is raking in hundreds of millions of shillings."

The Chinese national told the court he had purchased the ants locally at a rate of Sh10,000 per batch of 100, underscoring the profitability of the illicit supply chain.

Smugglers typically conceal the insects in specially modified test tubes and syringes, making detection particularly challenging to an ill-equipped officer.

Ichung’wah said equipping forest rangers with targeted skills in identifying and responding to emerging wildlife crimes, including insect trafficking, is critical to safeguarding Kenya’s biodiversity and closing enforcement gaps increasingly exploited by traffickers.

Ants are essential ecosystem engineers that maintain environmental health by aerating soil, decomposing organic waste, dispersing seeds, and preying on pests.

As crucial "hidden" workers, they move significant amounts of soil and recycle nutrients, improving soil quality similarly to earthworms.

The insects are, however, kept for totally different reasons once they are smuggled out of the country.

The giant African harvester ants in particular are largely used in Europe and Asia for the exotic pet trade and private collecting.

Enthusiasts, known as "ant keepers," prize them for their complex social structures and unique colony-building skills, keeping them in specialised display habitats called formicariums.