Push for total ban of donkey products trade

Animal welfare crusaders have urged President William Ruto’s government to impose a total ban on the slaughter of donkeys for commercial purposes to safeguard their existence.

Speaking to the media in Embu town, Kenya Networks for Dissemination of Agricultural Technologies (KENDAT) chief executive officer Heston Murithi said it was wrong to include donkeys and horses in the list of food animals.

He said some people are slaughtering donkeys and selling the uninspected meat to unsuspecting consumers, especially in Muranga County.

Although the government declined to issue trade licenses to operators of four abattoirs in Baringo, Machakos, Turkana and Nakuru counties even after the High Court quashed a temporary ban on the trade, Mr Murithi said some people were still smuggling out meat and skin to China and Lebanon.

“We are urging President Ruto to end the slaughter of donkeys in the country and the only permanent solution is to remove the animal from the list of food animals,” said Mr Murithi.

In February 2020, the government suspended the donkey meat and skin trade but the operators of the abattoirs went to court and in May last year, the High Court nullified the ban but the government declined to issue trade licenses.

In the court, former Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya argued that the slaughter of donkeys in Kenya was at five times the rate of donkey reproduction and that if the trade continued there would be no donkey left in the country by end of the next year.

He added that the policy of slaughtering donkeys for meat was not well thought out because the benefits brought by the traditional work they do are much more than slaughtering for meat and skin.

Mr Murithi said from 2016 to 2020 when the commercial trade existed, the population of donkeys dropped by 600,000 from 1.8 million to 1.2 million with the traders slaughtering on average 1000 donkeys per day in the four abattoirs.

The Chinese believe that donkey skin supplements lost blood, delays ageing, increases libido and treat side effects of chemotherapy. They also believe that it reverses infertility and prevents miscarriage and menstrual irregularity.

Mr Murithi said for the last few years, the donkey population had dropped due to prolonged drought despite KENDAT intervening by providing fodder in counties like Tharaka Nithi, Meru and Embu.

He added that people in the rural areas where donkeys are mainly used for transportation are slowly turning to motorcycles and vehicles.

He, however, said the use of donkeys for transportation is cheap and also helps to reduce toxic emissions by motorists which negatively affect the environment.