Buffalo plan: Why Ruto's milk crisis solution fell flat

Near-empty shelves at a supermarket in Utawala, Nairobi. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

In 2020, as scientists laboured to conjure up a vaccine for COVID-19, US President Donald Trump, in a White House coronavirus task force briefing on April 23, suggested “hitting” the body “with a tremendous ultraviolet or just very powerful light” or using a disinfectant to knock out the COVID-19 virus “in a minute”.

If it was said in jest, then Trump showed his staggering genius and tricked every self-respecting professional, for immediately health experts frantically started dispatching circulars warning against any self-harm inspired by the president’s bizarre suggestion. Pharmaceutical behemoths also cautioned the public sternly; the president’s remark had not been the wisest in the moment.

Fast-forward to 2027 and, in the wake of Kenya’s milk shortage, and thus a hike in the prices of the same, President William Ruto suggested a rather unconventional method of addressing the issue.

“I hear buffaloes also produce a lot of milk. If others are milking them, why can’t we do the same? What is wrong with that? We need to diversify our sources of milk,” Ruto said, adding that he had explored livestock development PS Jonathan Mueke to find improved cattle breeds, camels and buffaloes for increased milk production.

If he meant flying in a dozen domesticated water buffaloes, and specifically water buffaloes, then he had a point. Not a very convincing endeavour even then; it would be quite far-fetched and down the order of priority interventions, but it would be a solution nevertheless. River and swamp buffaloes are milked in different places around the world.

But as Ruto’s speech did rounds on social media, many wondered if attempting to tame one of the world’s most lethal killers for milk was a noble idea. Memes flew about on X showing men fleeing charging buffaloes in the wild, with the insinuation that Kenyans had already decided to enter game parks and heed the president’s directive.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the domestic water buffalo is the major milk-producing animal in several countries and is kept mostly by small-scale producers in developing countries.

Dairy buffaloes are a common occurrence in India, Pakistan, China, Nepal and Egypt, and in two of those countries, Pakistan and Nepal, they exceed dairy cows in number. 

“The largest water buffalo milk producers are India and Pakistan, where buffaloes produce more milk than cattle,” FAO notes.

PS Mueke confirmed to Citizen TV that his team would be searching for water buffalo, specifically. The untamable, wild bovine that loves to gore for fun was not the target. “We are not going for the wild buffalo that are out in the national park. This is a domesticated buffalo formerly known as a water buffalo, and the specific breed we are looking at from India is the Murrah breed,” he said.

What, one would wonder, is the fuss about, then, if a number of countries across the globe derive their nutritional supplements from these buffaloes?

Socio-cultural inclinations and practices, first, and the aforementioned argument that there are more plausible alternatives than outright introducing buffalo milk to a people who have, for aeons, only known cow and goat milk. The president’s supporters have come out in their numbers, defending his sentiments in earnest. The arguments make scientific sense, as buffalo milk contains the nutrients experts posit it does. However, it is not the immediate alternative.

In China, according to Humane World for Animals, approximately 10 million dogs and 4 million cats are killed each year for food. In times of drought in Kenya, or pretty much the rest of Africa, and the world, culling of animals for human consumption would barely touch these pets, because a number of better, more acceptable alternatives are already available.

President Ruto also mentioned the idea of ramping up milk production through importation of camels, and this was somewhat understandable. An article appearing in the National Library of Medicine in 2022 indicated that Kenya was the leading camel milk producer globally, with an annual production volume of 1.17million metric tonnes (MMT), followed by Somalia (0.958MMT) and Mali (0.271MMT). Pastoral communities of North-Eastern Kenya reared about 4.7 million camels, about 80 per cent of all camels in the country.

Although not alien to Kenyans, camel milk has been a mainstay of North-Eastern Kenya and it would struggle to proliferate if the whole country needed to adopt it in their daily diet.

The milk shortage, mainly associated with a severe drought that has devastated pastures, is expected to continue a while longer, with the Kenya Dairy Board warning shortages could run into yet another month.

Recently, Agriculture CS Mutahi Kagwe lamented poor purchasing rates by cooperative societies as one of the causes for the shortage of milk, with farmers preferring to sell off their milk to neighbours or smaller retailers who offer better prices in their localities.   

Among leaders who have challenged the president’s mooted intervention is Manyatta MP Gitonga Mukunji, who says that availing cheaper feeds would be one of the surest ways of fighting the milk shortage, ahead of rounding up buffaloes for milking.

Animal feed manufacturers, under the umbrella body Association of Kenya Feed Manufacturers (AKEFEMA), have been lobbying for policies that will allow the importation of feed ingredients made out of products of agricultural biotechnology, which are plentiful in the global market but which remain outlawed in Kenya. They will be crucial in affordable feed manufacturing.

Scientists agree. They believe that Kenya can build a more sustainable milk supply by embracing modern agricultural technologies to strengthen animal feed production.

"It is high time, as a country, that we embrace modern agricultural technologies in animal feed production. Climate-resilient biotech maize could help address the country’s perennial animal feed shortages," says Dr Margaret Karembu, Director, ISAAA AfriCenter. Maize is the principal raw material for livestock feed, and Kenya, which barely produces enough for human consumption, sees that little shared between food and feed manufacturers.

Before this monumental collapse in production, Kenya experienced an increase in marketed milk by 11.6 per cent in 2025, with 1.01 billion litres of milk sold centrally in the year, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), rising from 755.3 million litres in 2024. The country’s total marketed milk was 810.8 million litres in 2023, and 909.0 million litres in 2022.

Whether the president’s statements amount to deadcatting remains to be seen, especially as less ambitious promises have gone unfulfilled by this regime. With every new day, supermarket shelves run drier, price tags are being adjusted upwards, and families are having to reduce their milk intake, all while staring out their windows for the much-anticipated sign of the unlikely saviour, a hulking buffalo.

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