Christine Mwende knew her parents would not afford her college fees. Her dream of becoming a fashion designer was therefore at risk.
The lockdown that followed the Covid-19 outbreak last year had depressed her family’s income.
Mwende, 19, had been admitted to study for a Diploma in Fashion and Design at Jeremiah Nyagah Technical Training Institute in Embu. What would she do?
“I realised I had to get my hands dirty first,” she says.
Mwende read about guinea pigs farming and started with just three of them. Not much luck. One died after a few weeks. She had unknowingly fed them on a poisonous diet.
But she did not give up. “I have now learnt the ropes and have seen them multiply. It was difficult because very few people know how to rear them,” Mwende says.
Domestic guinea pigs are rat-like rodents kept as pets of for meat. They are closer to rabbits in appearance but differentiated by their short ears and lack of a tail. Rabbits have bigger ears and a short tail.
“The beauty of guinea pigs is that they are of fine colours - white, black and brown - making them attractive to many people,” Mwende says.
From her sales, she now comfortably pays her college fees and is left with enough money for upkeep.
The cost of a guinea pig depends on age.
A two-week-old pup costs Sh250 while one aged three to four weeks goes for up to Sh500.
Mature ones above four weeks cost at least Sh1,000 each. Mwende says she has sold more than 40 mature ones since she started the business.
A guinea pig gives birth to a maximum of four pups, with an average of three.
Most of her customers buy them for their meat, which has high protein content. Their fat is also high in rich unsaturated fatty acids.
Another unusual benefit is that they are considered a source of security due to the screams they make whenever they sense anything strange.
The animals are kept in hatches, similar to those of rabbits. Mwende says a major challenge is finding different species to cross-breed.
Inbred pups are born with some physical disorders such as blindness and this has affected two of her 26 guinea pigs.
"We request the Ministry of Agriculture to help by providing different species of guinea pigs to avoid the defects we’re witnessing in our farms," she said.
The Kenya Wildlife Service recognises guinea pigs as wild animals. They are also used for drug testing in laboratories.
KWS says it is still collecting data on rules of keeping the animals. There are also no statistics on guinea pig farming in Kenya since they are not counted during the Kenya Population and Housing Census.
Another guinea pig farmer is 26-year-old Morris Njeru. He currently stocks about 30 pigs, a business he is engaged in for a living.
"Guinea pigs are easy to rear since they feed on the weeds readily available in our farms like Napier grass, cabbages and the ordinary grass. They will not cost you much money since they don’t have a special diet compared to other livestock,” Njeru says.
Edited by Henry Makori
