Kajiado farmers reach out to KMC as livestock trade falls

A group of livestock farmers in Kajiado have appealed to the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) to purchase their stocks to help stabilise prices in the wake of the Covid-19 economic fallout.

A spot check at the Ilbisil—the largest livestock market in the county-- showed that livestock prices had slumped by about 30 per cent over the last months.

The common sight of lorry loads of livestock headed to markets in Nairobi are no more. Cross border livestock trade between Kenya and Tanzania has also been affected with few livestock from Tanzania recorded at Ilbisil market.

Herders said they hardly make a sale in the market, greatly affecting their families’ livelihood. The new trend is associated with reduced meat demand locally.

"My efforts to sell dozen of my goats have failed miserably in the last two weeks. Ilbisil livestock market is experiencing customers shortage. A mature goat is selling as low as Sh5,000, the lowest price in the last three years," said John Teum, an octogenarian herder from Kajiado central sub county.

They asked the county government to reconsider Monday as a market day to give the herders an extra chance in a week. Initially, the market used to take place on Monday and Friday before Monday was scrapped as one of Covid-19 mitigations measures.

The traders appealed to KMC to come to their aid through an offtake programme, especially since drought was looming in most parts of the vast county.