A Chinese national has been sentenced to one year in prison and fined the equivalent of roughly $7,700 after pleading guilty to attempting to smuggle thousands of live queen garden ants out of Kenya. Zhang Kequn was arrested on 10 March at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi — the Kenyan capital — after customs officials discovered more than 2,200 ants, including 1,948 specimens of the prized species Messor cephalotes, concealed in small test tubes in his luggage. He had been intending to travel to China.

Sentencing Zhang on Wednesday, Judge Irene Gichobi of a Nairobi court described him as lacking remorse and "not an entirely honest person," and stressed "the need for a stiff deterrent sentence" given the "rising cases of dealing in large quantities of garden ants and the negative ecological side effects." Zhang was initially charged with both dealing in wildlife without a permit and conspiracy to commit a felony, the latter of which carries up to seven years in prison. After negotiations with prosecutors, the conspiracy charge was dropped and he pleaded guilty to the remaining count. He has 14 days to appeal the sentence, which his lawyer says he intends to do. Once he has served his term, he will be deported to China.

Court records reveal that Zhang purchased the ants from Kenyan national Charles Mwangi at 10,000 Kenyan shillings (around $77) per hundred insects. In international collector markets — particularly in China, Europe and the United States — a single queen ant can fetch up to $220, making the trade highly lucrative. The insects are sought after as exotic pets and, in some markets, for their purported value as delicacies or aphrodisiacs. Mwangi, who is also accused of supplying ants to four individuals convicted in a separate case last year, has pleaded not guilty and his trial is ongoing.

The case is part of a broader pattern that Kenyan wildlife authorities have been working to disrupt. In May 2024, a Nairobi court sentenced four people — two Belgian nationals, a Vietnamese national and a Kenyan — to one year in prison or a fine of $7,700 after they were found with nearly 5,000 ants destined for collectors in Europe and Asia. That case drew international attention to east Africa's emerging role in the exotic insect trade.

Conservation authorities warn that large-scale removal of ant species from their native ecosystems can have significant ecological consequences, as ants play a critical role in soil aeration, seed dispersal and nutrient cycling. The Zhang case signals that Kenyan courts are prepared to impose custodial sentences — not just fines — to deter what officials describe as a growing and underreported form of wildlife trafficking.