More than 15 per cent of the country’s donkeys have been slaughtered since the government licensed four slaughterhouses to start operations.
Though this directive has since been rescinded, the Meru County Donkey Welfare Agribusiness is warning that the animals will be wiped out by next year if the ban is lifted.
This came as High Court Judge Richard Mwongo allowed the donkey farmers to be enjoined in a case where a Naivasha-based slaughterhouse opposes the ban on donkey slaughter.
In February 2020, Agriculture CS Peter Munya directed the management of four slaughterhouses to stop operations following concern that the number of the animals was dropping sharply.
The affected slaughterhouses were Star Brilliant (Naivasha), Goldox Kenya (Mogotio), Silzha (Turkana) and Fuhai (Machakos).
In a sworn affidavit, the welfare chairman Robert Maitethya said over two years the four abattoirs had slaughtered 15 per cent of the country’s donkeys.
Maitethya, who is also the national chairman of the Association of Donkey Owners, said between 2016 and 2018, close to 302,000 donkeys were slaughtered by the four institutions.
He added that cases of donkey theft across the country had increased since slaughtering of the animals started. The move has hurt owners who depend on donkeys.
“If these companies continue to slaughter the donkeys at the current rates, it is projected that all donkeys will be slaughtered by 2022,” he said.
In the affidavit, he said that this would hurt hundreds of families that rely on the beasts of burden in ferrying goods.
Maitethya said the increased cases of theft had seen the prices of the animals skyrocket and smuggling from Tanzania had risen.
“The four companies are directly contributing to the depletion of donkey populations, thus impacting heavily on communities who rely heavily on donkeys for transport of goods, food and water,” the affidavit read.
The judge gave all the parties 14 days to file their response.
The court has allowed slaughterhouses to continue with their operations after suspending the closure notice.
The judge termed the legal notice by Munya as unconstitutional and one that violates the rights of the owners of the abattoirs.
In his ruling, the judge noted that the AG and the Cabinet Secretary had failed to file the response to the application challenging the legal notice.
“The legal notice violates the rights of the applicant under Article 47 of the Constitution and the applicant is granted stay to operate in light of the failure by the respondent to file back his response,” the judge said.
Most donkeys are killed to satisfy Chinese demand for traditional medicine and skin-whitening cosmetics.
(Edited by V. Graham)
