Four suspects who were on Sunday arrested while allegedly ferrying the rare sandalwood in a police lorry along the Marigat-Nakuru highway have been arraigned in court.
The four, Athernus Nyota, an Administration Police officer, Simon Kangethe Augustine Manyumba and William Kiplagat were on Monday charged with being in possession of the protected tree worth Sh20 million before Chief Magistrate Doreen Mulekyo.
They further faced another count of removing protected tree species without the permission from the Kenya Forest Service director contrary to section 34(2) as read with section 34(8) of the Forest Act of 2015.
The suspects, however, denied the charges and were each released on Sh8 million bond or a cash bail of Sh1 million each, with a surety of similar amount pending the hearing of the matter on January 27, 2016.
According to the prosecution, the four were intercepted by the Kenya Wildlife Service officers at around 3am at Eden Estate while offloading the cargo estimated to be about seven tonnes which they had allegedly harvested at Arabal location in Baringo County.
The prosecution further testified that the police lorry, registration GKB 622 F, that the four were allegedly using and which was attached to East Pokot sub-county in Baringo was later traced to Nakuru after it failed to use its normal routes prompting police to mount a search for it.