A live cow for the price of 3 kg of meat

• Despair rises as price of a goat falls to the equivalent of a kilo of meat at a butchery

In ordinary circumstances, the two sisters could have sold their goats for at least Sh5,000 and bought enough food to feed the family for a couple of months. But these are not ordinary times, and the sisters knew it.

They set the selling price at Sh2,000 for both goats. The first trader to take interest was a Mr Rono, who removed a big wad of notes and peeled off four one hundred shilling notes and offered them.

“You don’t need to waste any more time here,” he told them. The sisters declined, and he walked away.

An hour later, he was back, and the sisters were willing to take Sh1,800. But he stuck to his initial offer and walked away again.

By the time he appeared an hour later, they were willing to take Sh1,000. After another round of haggling, the sisters went down to Sh800 then to Sh700, but Mr Rono would only offer them Sh500. The sisters, now clearly in a panic, asked for Sh600.

Smiling, Mr Rono took the two goats and, for the price of two kilogrammes of meat, they parted with the last of their family’s livestock.

“We don’t have a choice. It’s past midday. If we don’t sell now, we won’t be able to do it today. The next market day is Thursday next week. By then, the goats will have starved to death,” Kalekye said.

The two goats were the last pair in the family’s herd of 18 goats. The ther 16--and four cows--were also sold at throwaway prices.

The story of Mumbua and Kalekye can be repeated in almost every family in the region. Kabati market has been invaded by traders from distant places who buy livestock for a song and go on to make huge profits because the price of meat in butcheries has not changed.

Without food

That day Francis Maluni was selling the last of his cattle – two bulls. Without food for his family and oxen, the father of five children, three of whom are high school, hoped to get at least Sh4,000 for them.

“At one time I could have sold them at Sh25,000 each,” he said wistfully.

Jemima Muse, who had travelled from Mutonguni with her herdsboy to sell her two cows, said she would never keep livestock again after disposing of the two animals. Each of her cows would have fetched Sh15,000 some time back, but she knew she would be lucky to get Sh1,000 for one. She might have settled for Sh500.

“Can you imagine that?” she asked. “A whole cow for the price of two kilogrammes of meat! And the price of meat hasn’t gone down, even here at Kabati. The butchers and traders are making huge profits out of our misery.”

But she said she was ready to sell the animals at whatever price.