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Police officers impound donkey meat that was being ferried by a trader. [PHOTO: FILE / STANDARD] |
KENYA: For many years Kenyans have shivered at the thought of eating donkey meat with many preferring to consume meat from cattle, sheep and goats.
That is despite widely reported cases of unscrupulous traders slaughtering donkeys and transporting meat to major towns across the country for sale.
Police have on many occasions impounded donkey carcass on transit from areas surrounding Nairobi, Nakuru and Naivasha towns.
The fact that Kenyans know they could be unknowingly consuming donkey meat explains the mixed reactions on the opening of a slaughterhouse in Naivasha.
The donkey meat debate has drawn divergent reactions with some expressing disapproval while a more adventurous group gleefully expressed desire to enjoy the delicacy.
Though the owner of the slaughterhouse John Ngonjo Kariuki insists that the meat will be solely for export many remain sceptical and fear it will find its way onto their tables.
The decision to open a donkey slaughterhouse in Naivasha was also met with anger and concern from different quarters.
Nakuru County Senator James Kiarie Mungai expressed shock and opposed the idea of slaughtering donkeys.
“I have just arrived from South Africa. Is this thing real?” asked Mungai.
He said it is puzzling such a thing can happen and he will be demanding answers from all relevant arms of government.
“What kind of licence do the owners have? Does it mean now that because dog meat is eaten in some parts of the world, we should go ahead and legalise it? He posed”
He questioned “why Naivasha?”
According to Kariuki, the slaughterhouse proprietor, it will cost more than Sh15 million for the facility to be ready in March.
The Africa Veterinary Technical Association (AVTA) has disapproved the slaughterhouse on grounds that it does not meet international standards.
The AVTA chairman Benson Ameda said the donkey code of inspection has not been gazzetted and thus the proprietor cannot slaughter or import the meat.
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Mr Ameda reminded Kenyans that for many years now, stakeholders and government officers have been working on the code, which is yet to come into force.
Dumped
“We have for years many ignored donkey meat even after it was gazzeted as edible and yet the consumption is going on in a clandestine manner,” he said.
The AVTA chairman also raised concern that the two million donkeys in the country would be wiped out if consumption of the meat is allowed without proper breeding guidelines for the animals.
“This slaughterhouse does not qualify to be an export one and the code of inspecting donkey carcasses is not yet developed,” he argued.
But the Kenya Veterinary Association deputy chairman Samuel Kahariri described the slaughterhouse as a “viable” idea.
He argues that for many years donkey meat has been eaten in silence and away from public glare.
“For many years some people were not eating pork but slowly the number is picking up just like that of donkey meat,” he says.
Kahariri also differed with Ameda on the number of donkeys in the country insisting that they are on the increase with Kajiado alone accounting for over 60,000 animals.
“The problem with donkeys is that they are unevenly distributed in the country but the slaughterhouse would have enough for export,” he said.
The doctor added that once the code of inspection is in place the demand for donkey meat will gradually rise and eliminate the illegal vice and cruelty of slaughtering the animals in the bushes.
It has become a common spectacle for crowds to gather along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway after discovery of donkey carcasses.
The skeletons and internal organs of the donkeys are dumped in bushes after unscrupulous traders cart away the meat. Last month police recovered five carcasses of donkeys belonging to local farmers a few meters from the highway
The donkey thieves left a young man — who for the last one year used one of the donkeys to supply water to the sprawling Kabati estate in Naivasha — devastated.
He has now been rendered jobless just like scores of other youths whose only source of livelihood has been nipped in the bud by unscrupulous traders.
According to the donkey owners, they lose an average of five animals per week with the figures rising gradually.
In 2008 students from Egerton University embarked on a campaign to popularise donkey meat terming it safe for human consumption.
The students went ahead and slaughtered a donkey and offered the meat to the public a campaign that fell flat on its face.
The only place where donkeys are openly eaten is in Turkana and Pokot where it is a delicacy as well a beast of burden.
But unknowingly to many Kenyans, they have fed on donkey meat either at nyama choma joints or sold in butcheries disguised as beef or mutton.
Parts of Naivasha, Limuru and Kiambu towns have reported increased cases of donkey theft with a source indicating that the meat has ready market in Nairobi.
“Once a donkey is slaughtered one cannot tell the difference between its meat and that of a cow and many mainly in Nairobi have fed on donkey meat,” confesses one trader.
Legalized the sale
He expects to employ more than 30 workers while tens of others will benefit indirectly.
“I have been to China where there is a high demand and market for donkey meat and we expect to be slaughtering between 70 and 100 donkeys per day,” he says.
The trader says that he has embarked on the process of acquiring the legal papers and certification from government. He says there are over two million donkeys in the country adding that he will source them from Pokot, Turkana and even Naivasha.
Naivasha sub county veterinary officer Dr Enos Amuyunzu says that the government legalized the sale and slaughter of donkeys since 1999.
“The next move will be for the owner to seek an export license and the investors to inspect the slaughterhouse to make sure that it meets the international standards,” he says.
Amuyunzu said that this will be the first ever donkey slaughterhouse in the country and in the continent and inspection is going on.
“Government legalized the sale of donkey meat only that we did not have a legalized slaughterhouse in the country,” he says.
Although the law permits the slaughter and sale of donkeys, leaders in the country have questioned the timing and positioning of the slaughterhouse which is the first in Africa.
And it’s not only donkey meat that is finding its way to many kitchens as Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) notes of an increase in cases of game meat trade.
KWS says poachers have been targeting buffaloes, giraffe, zebra and Thomson gazelle in Mai Mahiu, Kasarani, Longonot, Ndabibi and Gilgil.
Eighty per cent of the wildlife in Naivasha is outside Hells Gate and Mt Longonot National Parks thus making it easy target to the poachers.
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