Kenya Press: Snake Dealer Deported
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Posted by W von Papineäu on September 11, 2002 at 18:43:36:
EAST AFRICAN STANDARD (Nairobi, Kenya) 10 September 02 Snake Dealer Deported (Raphael Kahaso)
Nairobi: An American citizen who has been buying live snakes from Kenya and exporting them overseas has been deported.
Thomas Benjamin Price, who resides in Switzerland, had been charged with being in the country illegally and engaging in gainful employment contrary to immigration laws.
He appeared before Kwale Senior Resident Magistrate, Mrs L N Ngatia, on August 22, 2002, who found him guilty of being in Kenya illegally and engaging in the business of buying and exporting snakes without a permit from Kenya Wildlife Service.
The court was told by a witness, Kazungu Karisa Washe, that Price bought Horn Vipers believed to be some of the deadliest snakes on earth and exported them.
Washe told the court Price paid Sh1,000 for every Horn Viper delivered to him at his rented residence at Diani in the South Coast.
Ngatia fined Price Sh48,000 and ordered him to be repatriated after paying the fine. Price, however, lodged an appeal in the High Court in Mombasa against the deportation order but withdrew it on September 2, 2002. Senior immigration officers then escorted him to the Moi International Airport where they put him on the first available international flight.
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