- The company is in the business of slaughtering and exporting donkey meat and its byproducts.
- It operates a slaughterhouse in Mogotio, Baringo county.
Image: FILE
A company has petitioned the High Court to reverse Agriculture CS Peter Munya's ban on donkey slaughter.
Goldox Limited says it was never consulted and has not been notified to date.
The firm says the CS gave it only a month's notice (which expires on March 24) to transform its slaughterhouse into a facility that only handles cattle meat.
The company is in the business of slaughtering and exporting donkey meat and its byproducts. It operates a slaughterhouse in Mogotio, Baringo county.
On February 24, the CS banned the slaughter of donkeys effective immediately. He further revoked the licence of Goldox, which the company has termed unlawful.
The number of donkeys has declined from 1.8 million in 2009 to around 600,000 in 2019.
Through lawyer Thomas K’bahati, Goldox MD Lu Jin said Munya has not cited the law he relied on to ban a legitimate business operating lawfully in the country.
“The CS reaction will result in massive job losses, disruption of line businesses and revenue loss to the country,” Lu says.
According to the court documents, the CS has not named or identified the alleged numerous donkey owners who are complaining and to whom the complaints were made.
“The named association of donkey owners in Kenya is not known to me. It is doubtful whether it is a genuine donkey owners' association and how many donkeys each member owns,” Lu says.
Lu says it was unreasonable to ban an entire industry employing thousands and contributing to the economy because of a one-day protest.
He says the allegation of rampant donkey theft is not backed by any evidence. “Theft is a criminal act. The CS did not give the number of cases reported about donkey theft to show how prevalent it was to warrant the ban,” he says.
He says the ban was not gazetted as required by law and is therefore unlawful. “The CS did not have powers to ban or revoke the license as it resulted in sudden redundancy to the employees,” Lu says.
Lu says all the donkey meat, skin and hides that were due for export will be wasted, resulting in colossal losses as there is no direction on what to do with them.
“We were not heard or consulted as a person who would be directly affected by the decision and has never been notified of the decision to date contrary to rules of natural justice,” Lu says.