Boost for pastoralists as group buys 2,500 livestock from drought-ravaged region

Nairobi; Kenya: Farmers in the drought-ravaged northern Kenya region have benefited after Northern Rangeland (NRT) bought 2,500 livestock from them during the current dry spell.

The wildlife conservation group that has now included in its programme livestock breeding said it would buy an additional 500 livestock from the farmers in the next two months to bring the tally to 3,000 this year.

The Director of Livestock at NRT, Patrick Ekodere, said the organisation bought the emaciated stocks from the herders in Isiolo, Samburu and Marsabit counties at a price of Sh25,000 per head. ‘’We bought cattle from the farmers in the areas where we operate. We paid Sh25,000 for each animal, which was to the advantage of the pastoralists given that they are exploited by middlemen during this time of drought,’’ said Dr Ekodere. NRT operates in Isiolo, Samburu, Marsabit, Laikipia, Turkana, Baringo, Meru, Garissa and Lamu Counties and has under it 58 community-based wildlife conservancies.

Ekodere was speaking at Ol Pejeta Wildlife Conservancy and Ranch in Nanyuki, Laikipia County on Friday during a tour for herders from Losesia and Sereolipi group ranches in Samburu East that was organised by the organisation.

Ol Pejeta is a renowned ranch in the world that breeds the indigenous Boran cattle with an abattoir that supplies meat to major hotels and other outlets in Nairobi, among other places. ‘’After we buy the animals we take them to Lewa Downs Wildlife Conservancy which has a facility to test the stocks for diseases.

FIVE-STAR HOTELS

“Thereafter we bring them to Ol Pejeta for value addition,’’ said Ekodere. The animals are tested mainly for the Contagious Bovine Pleural Pneumonia (CBPP) and later taken to Ol Pejeta Ranch for fattening before they are slaughtered and the meat sold mainly to five-Star hotels in Nairobi. NRT, disclosed Titus Letaapo, the officer in charge of rangeland, has come up with a business wing that entails setting up of an integrated project where livestock can be reared in wildlife conservancies. NRT brought two group ranches from Sereolipi and Losesia, which form the Sera Wildlife Conservancy, to learn from Ol Pejeta how to mix both wildlife and livestock in the same environment.

The organisation gives back Sh2,000 per stock it buys to conservancies for community projects that include beefing up of security and education while the seller forks out Sh1,000 to the same kitty. A new abattoir for NRT, said Ian Craig the director of conservancy, is under construction at Ol Pejeta.