- A court lifted the ban on donkey slaughter in 2021 but with stringent measures that no slaughterhouse has met.
- Lobby says the government has not issued any licences to any donkey slaughterhouse.
Image: GEORGE OWITI
Hundreds of donkeys have been irregularly moved from Kitui to Kiambu, an animal lobby has protested.
Brooke East Africa senior advocacy and innovations officer Samuel Theuri said the animals were moved without a no-objection permit as required by the law.
“We, as Brooke East Africa, noticed that a number of movement permits that had been issued from areas, including Kitui, were irregular. There is a procedure for moving animals,” he said.
Brooke EA is an organisation dedicated to promoting the welfare of vulnerable working donkeys, horses and mules.
It has presence in Kenya, Tanzania, South Sudan, Somaliland and Uganda.
“We promote the welfare of vulnerable working donkeys, horses and mules that are critical in supporting the livelihoods of donkey dependable communities as working animals in their farms, fetching water, ploughing, collecting firewood, transporting farm produce, construction materials, among other livelihoods support activities,” Theuri said.
He addressed reporters at his office in Nairobi on March 7.
“If you want to move animals from one area to another, there is need to secure a no-objection permit from the receiving county even before you secure a movement permit from the county where the animals will be moving from,” he said.
“And, when we looked into whether there had been any issuance of no-objection permits to have donkeys moved to Limuru in Kiambu county, we couldn’t trace any no-objection permits that had been issued.
"That means there is a well-orchestrated syndicate that is moving, slaughtering and selling the animal’s meat against the law. Slaughtering donkeys is against the law, selling that meat is against the law.”
Theuri said the organisation is in possession of numerous copies of donkey movement permits from Kitui county.
He said most of the permits were issued by Kitui government officers at Kisasi market.
“...when you find instances like this one, we only wonder whether there is some form of collusion. Kenya banned the slaughter of donkeys in 2020 and the statement that was issued by the then minister is still active,” Theuri said.
He said the government has not issued any licences to any donkey slaughterhouse.
A court lifted the ban on donkey slaughter in 2021 but with stringent measures that no slaughterhouse has met.
“So, the slaughter of donkeys in this country is illegal. In the recent past, late last year, a conference was organised by the African Union in Tanzania and member states resolved to ban the slaughtering of donkeys for at least 15 years so people can understand this trade, productive patterns of these animals, people could look at any other value chains that could be added into any policies or programmes that could be put in place to increase donkey population given the dynamics of traditional Chinese medicine at the moment,” Theuri said.
Donkeys in Kenya and Africa, in general, are working animals that support livelihoods and their slaughter has a negative impact on communities that depend on them, he said.
Theuri urged the government to scrutinise the export of donkey skin. “We suspect that donkey skins are leaving the country in one way or another through either legal or illegal means,” he said.
Two people were caught slaughtering donkeys in Limuru, Kiambu county, recently and about 33 carcasses of the animals and meat recovered.
Two vehicles suspected to be used to transport the animal products were also impounded.
Image: COURTESY