President Yoweri Museveni has left for Laikipia, in neighboring Kenya where he is expected to join African leaders for the ‘Giants Club’ summit to tackle the elephant poaching crisis.
At Entebbe airport, the president was seen off by Vice President Edward Ssekandi and was flanked by Head of Head of Public Service, John Mitala, Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Gen. Katumba Wamala, Commissioner of Prisons Dr, Johnston Byabashaija and Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) Okoth Ochola.
The inaugural Giants Club summit is being convened by the President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, and is expected to attract a number of heads of states, business leaders and scientists from all around the world. .
The two day summit will be seeking to develop a continent-wide response to the trade in illegal-wildlife and is being staged in partnership with the Kenya-based wildlife charity Space for Giants.
At the event Kenya will set fire to nearly its entire confiscated stock of ivory, 105 tonnes, equivalent to the tusks of more than 6,700 elephants.
The ivory has been piled into a dozen giant pyres, which will be lit by dignitaries at the summit.
The mass burning on Saturday will be seven times the size of any stockpile destruction so far, and represents about 5% of global ivory stores. Some 1.35 tonnes of rhino horn will also be burned.
The street value of the ivory destroyed is estimated at more than $100 million (£70m), and the rhino horn at $80 million (£55m).
Africa is home to between 450,000 to 500,000 elephants, but more than 30,000 are killed every year for their tusks.