Kenya's elephant population has more than doubled over the last three decades

The elephant population in Kenya has more than doubled over the last three decades thanks to increased anti-poaching efforts, the country's tourism minister revealed this week.

Per Reuters, Minister Najib Balala said that there were just 16,000 elephants in Kenya in 1989 as compared to upwards of 34,000 in 2018.

Watch a baby elephant take its very first steps in this video:

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“In the last couple of years, we have managed to tame poaching in this country,” he said at an event marking World Elephant Day on Wednesday. The number of elephants poached in the country stands at seven, compared to 34 in the entirety of 2019 and 80 in 2018.

Speaking during an event for World Elephant Day, Mr Balala added: "Today we are also launching the Magical Kenya elephant naming campaign, an annual festival whose objective will be to collect funds from the naming, to support the rangers' welfare.

"This year alone, about 170 elephant calves have been born."

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Mr Balala wrote on Twitter, "In celebrating the #WorldElephantDay, I took part in an Elephant Collaring Exercise, at Amboseli. We collared the young bull, so that we can understand and monitor the movement patterns of the herd, for Elephant conservation and management"

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The government has put in place stricter penalties for poachers, including longer jail terms and heftier fines for anyone who is convicted of poaching or trafficking in wildlife trophies. It said poaching was harming tourism in the country.

Mr Balala revealed that due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the number of foreign tourists visiting Kenya was expected to fall by between 80% and 90% in 2020 and 2021.

In 2016, President Uhuru Kenyatta set thousands of elephant tusks and rhino horns ablaze, destroying the stockpile that would have been worth a considerable sum of money to smugglers. It sent a message that trade in the animal parts must cease.