Warlords putting stolen meat on your plate

By Paul Wafula and Moses Michira

Soldiers sent to restore order in Baragoi. [PHOTOS: MIKE SAITOTI/STANDARD]

NORTHERN KENYA: Ruthless livestock traders are pushing stolen animals into the legitimate meat market in an underground economy that now threatens to wipe out two pastoralist communities in Northern Kenya.

We have established that animals stolen from warring communities of Turkana and Samburu end up in butcheries in major towns.

The stolen animals are sold at deep discounts compared to the regular market prices indicating that the main motivation for the traders is to profit by volumes, thus encouraging more attacks.

“There are always lorries waiting whenever there is a major raid in our main markets like Marigat and Lokori,” said Lucas Eris, a teacher in Samburu County, who is also a herder.

He added that the markets are exclusive to each community, which makes it difficult for owners from rival tribes to trace lost animals, despite the differentiated markings, without the risk of violence.

Investigations

During our investigations, we ascertained that households in key towns in Kenya, including Nakuru and Nairobi, as well as some Middle East countries where Kenya exports its beef, are innocently funding the livestock theft.

“It’s a huge cartel involving transporters, traders, chiefs, councillors and cattle traders. These people conspire to beat the laws to sell stolen cattle,” stated a manager of a Non-Governmental Organisation.

The manager works with the NGO in Turkana, Samburu, and Pokot.

A senior officer attached to the Baragoi Police Station said the stolen animals end up in abattoirs and butcheries in towns like Nakuru and Nairobi.

“The stolen animals are mostly sold off and we think they end up as meat in major towns,” said the officer who requested anonymity to protect himself from his seniors.

The beef sold in your local butchery in Nairobi during the December holidays may well have been from one of the over 500 cattle stolen in Ndoto village of Baragoi last month in an attack that was followed by a bungled recovery mission that claimed the lives of 46 police officers.

Trail of violence

The trail of violence following the cattle thefts is leaving in its wake poorer communities, traumatised orphans, voiceless widows and weaker widowers while on the flipside creating billionaires along its network of raiders, brokers, transporters and gun dealers.

Prices of cattle plummet days after a major raid as rustlers compete to offload their latest catch before a counter raid is done.

A visit to one of the markets revealed this as traders complained of fewer buyers and lower prices.

“Business is not so good at the moment despite the fact that it is just a week into the festive season, a period that usually fetches us higher prices.

This usually happens when there has been a major raid,” said Joseph Lenaruti, a pastoralist who had come to sell animals at Lekuru market said in an interview.

 The Lekuru market takes place every Saturday and buyers who attend the market come from Gilgil, Rumuruti and Nairobi among other parts of the country.

It costs about Sh200 to transport a cow and about Sh50 for a goat between Lekuru to Rumuruti using professional herders on foot.

Once sold, a goat is marked at its back with a red paint before being shipped out.

“It takes between three to five days to herd animals between the two regions on foot,” Lenaruti said.

Other animals are ferried using lorries and pickups, a process the feeds into the stolen cattle into the mainstream meat market.

The brutal cattle raids that spare neither women nor children have left security officers and administrators mere spectators and a laughing stock of the rustling communities that is getting more sophisticated by the day.

According to Chobo Lekonye, a Turkana elder, warriors from the community drive stolen animals through Suguta Valley, from where they head to Turkana district, while the Samburu take animals as far away as Wamba.

Another Turkana elder who sought anonymity said stolen animals were not moved through the valley immediately but remained hidden in the bushes until it was safe to take them to the market to “clean them”.

Insiders familiar with the raids told the investigation team that to avoid causing a glut and to reduce chances of being caught after executing a major raid some stolen cattle are equally distributed amongst bandits and secretly released into the markets in smaller numbers.

“After being recruited, we are well trained and armed. The raids are well organised and they usually happen during rainy nights,” a retired rustler who requested not to be named on grounds that he will be seen to be betraying his colleagues told the Standard On Saturday.

Raiders also favour public holidays when security is believed to be “lax”. Circumcision and weddings are also festivities that attract smaller raids.  Smaller raids, where fewer animals are stolen are referred to as cold war. “Cold war is when less than ten cows are stolen,” a moran we spoke to said.

 Trail of violence

“One of these types of raids happens at least in every three days and most of the animals stolen are exchanged for guns in preparation for a major raid. Others are quickly sold off or slaughtered for food.”

The moran said that one firearm is exchanged for one donkey or three cows.

“Guns are easily available here once you have a donkey or the three cows. We mostly get our guns from Turkana’s because we are at the centre. On one side we have the Borana’s and on the other is Turkana and Pokot,” he added. 

Most young men we spoke to in confidence from both the Turkana and Samburu communities living in the dusty town of Baragoi said that they had themselves or personally knew someone close who had taken part in a raid.

“Two of my brothers have been killed while in a past raid on the Turkana side,” said one herder at Ngilai Primary School.

Interestingly though, most households in the area have been rendered poorer with both communities blaming each other.