53-year-old Winfrida Mikae is a single mother of five and grandmother of three. She says the donkey business has helped her pay school fees up to university level for her three children. She has been a donkey owner for 10 years. She is now the treasurer of the Githunguri- Ruai Donkey Owners Association registered as a self-help group of 20 donkey owners, nine men and 11 women.
"We do table banking where one can access a loan but pay with interest. The money has helped me pay fees for my kids, who are now graduates from the Kenya Medical Training College and Kenyatta University."
For Mikae, it has not been an easy journey, especially since she separated from her husband. She is, however, glad she has been able to provide basic and secondary needs for herself and her children, thanks to donkeys.
"I had four donkeys, but they were illegally slaughtered for meat by unknown people. I'm grateful to the people from Brooke who helped me buy another donkey, and now I have three." She says.
Wanjiku, Kerubo, and Mikae all understand the need to take great care of their donkeys for maximum productivity and profits. According to them, donkeys are just like human beings. If you treat them well, they love you. If you mistreat them, they will harass you and refuse to work. The three women say they used to hit and mistreat their donkeys, but after undergoing training on equine welfare, they became intentional and created friendships with their donkeys through feeding and training them.
Kerubo says she has become so accustomed to her donkeys that it feels like a marriage because the donkeys provide for her: "When my donkey sees me, it starts billowing. It delights me, and I am so keen to handle it well because, without these donkeys, I would not have survived in Nairobi. "Ningekuwa nilirudi ushago." (I would have gone back to the village).
Wanjiku, whose donkey is female, says she always has to make sure they are properly fed, given clean water, and sleep in a clean environment. She also ensures they rest for at least three hours during the day. According to experts, female donkeys need special care compared to male donkeys, especially when they are expectant.
"My donkey had started adding weight and was not as efficient as before, and that is how I noticed it was pregnant. I had to reduce the workload so I gave her four hours of rest per day and fed her with plenty of dry grass, maize jam, and bran mash. I also ensured that she had a constant supply of clean, fresh water."
According to Wanjiku, "Veterinary officers come every three months to assess the overall health of donkeys and diagnose and treat diseases. Most times the services are free of charge, other times we pay."
Mikae says that the greatest challenge they face as donkey owners in Githunguri is security for their donkeys.
"We want to own a plot so we can stop paying rent. This way, we will be able to hire people who can take care of our donkeys as many are slaughtered or poisoned." She says.
According to The Donkey Sanctuary, pregnant animals' working hours should be regulated and given lighter duties. If starved or mistreated, even if the female animal desires to get babies for the next season, it will not reproduce. Mistreating a female donkey can, therefore, be detrimental to the owners, who would want more profit, considering their long gestation period of 11 to 14 months.
Dr Oloo says one of the most prevalent reproductive diseases in donkeys is endometritis, a disorder caused by bacteria and can be treated by vets if diagnosed early, if untreated, endometritis could lead to irreversible infertility.
Some of the signs of endometritis is a foul-smelling discharge that comes through the vagina but emanates from the uterus.
Dr Samantha Opere, a veterinary officer, says that research on donkeys is limited, making it hard to detect and diagnose many diseases.
"When a donkey miscarries, the owners don't call us in time because most of the time they know it is their fault. Sometimes, we encounter cases of foals that are born weak and die due to mishandling by the owners," she says.
According to Dr Opere, donkeys should be given at least three months of reduced workload (in the last trimester) to allow the Jenny to spend her energy to grow the foal as she prepares for birth. They should then be given three to four months of maternity leave after giving birth.
"When the jenny rests, it gives the foal time to be strong while suckling. But most people give the donkey just one month, which is not enough. They need to add more rest time to increase population and avoid miscarriages and weak foal," she adds.
Jennies produce milk for their foals who, just like human babies, will suckle exclusively for six months and thereafter continue with other feeds for up to 12 months. The amount of milk produced by jennies after giving birth is usually less (about one litre per feed) compared to cows, camels, and goats. Luckily, humans do not consume donkey milk, hence the foal gets to suckle all the milk.
"The first milk after birth (colostrum) contains antibodies that are transferred to the foal to strengthen their immunity. They should be dewormed every month from the third month until they are 15 months old and then every three months afterwards," says Dr Oloo.
Despite many efforts to ensure proper reproductive and foal health in donkeys, the donkey slaughter trade has an impact on donkey populations.
According to Dr. Oloo, many of these donkeys are usually slaughtered while pregnant or when they are together with their foals. This will reduce donkey populations in Kenya and Africa and deprive the communities of donkeys, where they get their livelihoods as they depend on these animals to earn a living.