Lifting the veil on illegal trade in African grey parrot in Kenya

On any ordinary day in Majengo Sokoni, a bustling market in King’orani, Mombasa, the run of daily hustle is the norm.

Traders squeeze through narrow aisles to offload goods as money change hands between buyers and sellers.

Across a street that serves as a buffer between the bustling market and the peaceful residential homes, a more clandestine trade exists -- trade in African grey parrots.

Within the confines of homes belonging to traders of these birds in Majengo, it is an ordinary sight to be welcomed by these birds known for their intelligence and mimicry of the human voice.

Often, they are perched on their cages, their beady eyes following the comings and goings of family members and their potential buyers bargaining their prices. Many times, they watch the ‘new stock’, being shoved into the same cage which they will share until they are all sold out to new owners. 

The trade in African grey parrots is lucrative, fueled by a desire for exotic pets and a belief in their ability to provide companionship. But behind the façade of this thriving market, a darker reality lurks. Many of these birds have been captured from the wild, torn from their natural habitats in West Africa and subjected to the stress and trauma of captivity.

African grey parrots are Africa’s largest parrot, and are one of the most popular pet birds. They are only found in equatorial forests and were once in abundance in countries like Angola, Cameroon, the Congo, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda. In Kenya, the African grey parrots are found in Kakamega forest.

Kenyan laws that protect the grey parrots do not allow local or international trade on the birds. The laws that were put in place in 2021 prohibit people from selling the parrots either online or physically. 

This writer set out to investigate whether the illegal trade of the birds, one of the most traded internationally, is still ongoing in Kenya despite the tough regulations.

The investigations revealed a population on the edge of collapse in their wild habitat in Kakamega forest, amidst the growing number of unregistered parrots being traded outside of the regulations. The investigations also revealed a far more alarming reality -- hundreds of these intelligent birds are caged in private homes and tourism facilities, their freedom traded for a life in captivity.  

Statistics obtained by The Standard from Kenya Wildlife Service’s estimate the current population of the birds in the country at 930. The data shows that majority of the grey parrots -- 918 -- are registered in people’s homes and tourism facilities across the country while 12, were recorded in the wild in the latest bird counts that were conducted in 2023.

Despite Kenya’s and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) stringent regulations, the laws are flouted across borders to feed the growing demand for exotic pet trade.

Part of our investigations explored how the trade is silently being conducted and how a cross-border trafficking ring is exploiting the species that should legally be enjoying the highest level of protection like rhinos, elephants, and sea turtles.

“These two are the remaining batch. We will restock them soon when they are brought in from Congo,” one of the parrot sellers in Majengo says.

The seller says she has been in the trade for ‘several years’ now where she gets a constant supply of the birds which are supplied by drivers of the long-distance trailers traversing Kenya and DRC.

“They are often dirty and stink when they get here. I often wash and groom them before putting them in the cages where buyers can choose the one they like,” she says.

For her, an adult grey parrot sells at Sh40,000 while a young one goes at Sh25,000.

And while awareness surrounding the legality of owning an African grey parrot might seem low among the public, those actively engaged in the trade understand the law and are often cautious.

They know that the birds are sourced from the wild and should be transported cautiously  to avoid being spotted by the authorities.

“I cannot promise you that the authorities will not come after you because these birds are from the wild. You have to be cautious when transporting them. We often package them inside a carton box then load them on to a plastic container that is well aerated,” she says and adds that the birds can easily tear carton boxes because they are yet to be fully tamed.

Further interviews with pet sellers by the roadside along Nyali and around Marikiti market in Mombasa revealed that while grey parrots are on demand, sellers are cautious.

“The African grey is not like any other bird. You have to place an order for it to be delivered. They are often brought in from Nairobi and you can pick it tomorrow as long as you have cash at hand,” one of the ornamental birds sellers says.

For some pet sellers whom this writer approached, grey parrot delivery is only a call away as long as money is paid up front. 

Our investigations revealed that the birds are poor breeders in captivity yet business is vibrant throughout the year, which signals active cross-border trafficking.

“I have been selling the birds for over five years and there have been no chances of them breeding despite being in the same cage. This is because this bird belongs to the wild and might only breed if there are enough natural spaces that resemble their wild environment,” one of the sellers says.

And while trade of the bird seems to be thriving silently, in one of the major tourist hotels in Mombasa that has permits to keep the birds, it is common to find visitors spending time around the cage admiring the rare species that they can barely find in the wild.

Keeping these birds in major hospitality industries silently promotes trading in the birds by luring visitors to think that it is okay to acquire and own them, experts say.

“What if someone enjoys the company of that bird and feels like acquiring one? Displaying these birds to entertain visitors is sending signals and promoting ownership of these birds, hence promoting illegal trade,” Patrick Muinde, a research manager at World Animal Protection told The Standard.

He said the trend is worrying, given that the higher percentage of populations in captivity are not breeding.

“The danger is that the birds in captivity, whose populations are higher than those in the wild, can not breed. This means that there is danger of more birds being extracted from the wild to feed the growing demand,” Muinde said.

Besides the current existing loopholes in implementation of regulations that should protect the grey parrots from exploitation,  Muinde highlights the welfare concerns.

“Besides many of these birds dying on transit while being smuggled across borders, others that survive are most likely to go through traumatic rehoming several times in their lives because of their extremely long lifespan,” Muinde says.

Welfare concerns also arise due to non-implementation of the regulations, a situation that often sees most of the birds not being fed proper food.

World Animal Protection estimates that up to  21 per cent of the wild grey parrot population is  poached each year to supply the illegal wildlife trade, driven by the demand for exotic pets.

How government stepped in to save grey parrots

With the utilisation of an emerging e-commerce era, trading in grey parrots in Kenya peaked in 2020 and 2021 where hundreds of birds were being sold online everyday. Wildlife cyber crime exploiting the parrots became massive, prompting the government to come up with regulations including giving permits to owners who already had the birds.

In October 2021, the government, through a Gazette Notice issued an amnesty for persons in possession of the grey parrots species without a permit issued by KWS to visit any wildlife office for declaration, registration and permission to possess the birds. The 45-day amnesty ran from 25th October 2021 to 8th December 2021 upon which 918 birds were legally registered.

“The purpose of registration of illegally possessed African grey parrots was to take stock of the number of grey parrots illegally possessed in the country and document them for traceability during their lifetime,” KWS told The Standard.

KWS also noted the exercise was geared at providing a basis for future law enforcement not only in Kenya, but across the East and Central African region, where they are suspected to have originated from.

Regulations on grey parrots

KWS regulations stipulate that illegal trade in African grey parrots is “a wildlife crime and it is dealt with as such by the KWS law enforcement arm through established criminal justice system in the country”.

As per the laws, the grey parrot are not transferable to any other person or location without KWS’s approval. The regulations also stipulate that the owners shall keep the parrot under ethical conditions and that it shall not be exported.

Owners are not allowed to tamper with the registration ring fitted on the birds. However, our investigations reveal that sellers are fitting the birds with rings to disguise them as legally registered. 

Although this legislation was put in place to protect the parrots and curb further trade on the species, experts have pointed out gaps in implementation of the regulations as a major challenge.

A species expert at Nature Kenya Paul Gacheru said while progress has been made towards formulation of legislation targeted at protecting the species, enforcement of the laws remains one of the greatest challenges.

“The law might be clear but enforcement of the  regulations is a challenge. Giving permits to allow ownership of the grey parrots does not stop infiltration of capturing the birds from the wild ,” Gacheru says.

He says while the new regulations might help in tightening the loopholes on illegal cross-border trading, internal trading of the parrots might still continue.

World Parrot Trust director for Africa Region Rowan Martin says that grey parrots have been one of the most heavily trapped of all parrot species. Coupled with their slow rates of reproduction, the organisation say this pressure has led to dramatic collapse in wild populations.

“Sadly parrots trapped in the wild do not fare well in captivity and many pet parrots only survive for a fraction of the time they would in the wild,” Martin says.

He said that while permitting ownership of grey parrots is a step towards curbing further illegal trade of the birds, it sends mixed signals to the public.

He acknowledges that programs that allow for ownership of parrots, especially endangered and native species, can be challenging to implement and must be carefully designed and considered. 

Martin says that sustained public awareness campaigns to ensure the public understand the regulations and the reasons they have been put in place are necessary in order to prevent unnecessary animal suffering.

To combat the illegal trade of the birds, experts say that there is need for cross-border collaboration between enforcement agencies in source, transit and destination countries, with sharing of information to dismantle the networks that are operating across the region.

Experts also say multilateral forums such as the African Union and CITES should provide a means for countries to coordinate efforts to protect their shared natural heritage where countries like Kenya should take a lead. 

“For instance, the proactive approach taken by the government in Kenya is currently undermined by the very weak protections for parrots in the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Martin says.

He warns that while some countries are currently considering permitting the commercial breeding of Grey parrots for export, this would stimulate demand for wild parrots as breeding stock and create enormous challenges for enforcement agencies to prevent the laundering of wild birds.

“The actions of one country can have major implications for others and the Kenyan government is well positioned to lead diplomatic efforts to prevent the introduction of harmful policies and strengthen protections across the region,” he adds.

Besides the need to police physical marketplaces, including roadside sellers curbing the trade of the birds, Martin says, regular monitoring of all online platforms is also important.