•Export of donkey skins is fueling illegal slaughter of donkeys in the country thus threatening their population
•Before the government closed the slaughterhouses, data shows that 1,200 donkeys would be slaughtered daily between 2016 and 2020
Image: COURTESY
Calls have been made to the government to ban exportation of donkey skins.
This is after it emerged that their export is fueling the illegal slaughter of donkeys in the country thus threatening their population.
Before the government closed the slaughterhouses, data shows that 1,200 donkeys would be slaughtered daily between 2016 and 2020.
The slaughterhouses were closed by the government in 2020 to reduce the number of donkeys that had dwindled significantly according to the 2019 census.
The move was also a relief to the farmers as donkey theft had denied them a source of revenue.
The concern now is that those who are slaughtering the donkeys for skins trade and taking advantage of high demand for meat, especially in Nairobi to sell the meat which is slaughtered in unhygienic conditions.
This is because Kenya does not have enough meat hence the bulk of animals for slaughter are brought in from Ethiopia and Tanzania.
The supplies in most cases are not enough to satisfy the demand hence the unscrupulous business of selling donkey meat disguised as cow meat in Nairobi.
The meat, according to regional director Brooke East Africa Raphael Kinoti ends up in high-end butcheries in the city.
“This is meat we have discovered goes to high-end butcheries from our research and investigations,” Kinoti said.
“Vehicles are being impounded, and on further inquiries from the people arrested carrying this meat, where they were taking the meat and they point to some of the places in Nairobi that are high-end."
The donkeys are also slaughtered without any inspection, raising the fear that they would lead to the spread of serious diseases such as anthrax.
Kinoti has said that the slaughterhouses were influencing a lot of illegal slaughter which was in most cases being done in bushes.
In February 2020, the then Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya stopped the operations of slaughterhouses in Naivasha, Mogotio, Turkana and Machakos.
Despite that, police have on several occasions impounded vehicles loaded with donkey meat either in Kikuyu or Kitengela and destined for sale in Nairobi.
When the government closed slaughterhouses, bush slaughter significantly went down showing there was a direct linkage between legal and illegal slaughter.
“We still have a challenge in the bush slaughter because we have that small loophole that you can export a donkey skin legally in Kenya,” Kinoti said.
He added: “So what we are urging the government is that now that we closed the slaughterhouses, let us also remove donkey skin from the list of skins that could be exported from Kenya, I think that could help a big deal.”
Donkey is an important mode of transport for people and goods.
Organisations that support the well-being of donkeys, such as Farming Systems Kenya and Brooke East Africa and also farmers have urged the government not to lift the ban on donkey slaughter.