Kenyan wildlife rangers arrested 12 men from an illicit game trade syndicate suspected of killing a 10-year-old white rhino and hacking off its horns, the head of the country's wildlife service said Monday.
Rangers mounted a manhunt, arrested the suspects and recovered the horns after the female rhino was killed on December 28 on a private ranch in central Kenya.
"If we lose one rhino, as Kenya, that's a lot," wildlife chief Julius Kipng'etich told reporters.
The suspects were to be arraigned later Monday before a court in Nairobi's Kibera district, wildlife service spokesman Paul Udoto told AFP.
The east African country, which has the world's third largest rhino population — around 600 black and 300 white rhinos — suffered its worst year for rhino poaching in 2009, when 12 black and six white rhinos were killed.
The illegal trade is driven by Asian and Middle Eastern demand for ivory used in traditional medicines for fevers, convulsions and as an aphrodisiac.
The horns mainly contain keratin — a susbstance also found in hooves, nails and hair — and Kipng'etich derided its use as an aphrodisiac.
"It is a myth. People think that it is an aphrodisiac. If you want similar effect you could chew your nails or munch your hair."
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