Experts blame Sh60bn meat black market for surge in cattle rustling

The question arises as to who are the actors and beneficiaries of thriving meat black market estimated to be worth more than Sh60 billion per year.

Security organs believe that the black market is responsible for rampant cases of cattle rustling especially in the North Rift but spreading fast to other areas.

Blamed are politicians, security officers and unscrupulous businessmen who have formed a cartel that controls the market channels spreading to even the Middle East.

Mr Ilhakia Katumanga, a Kenyan doctoral student at the University of Bordeaux, France, says about 4,000 head of cattle are stolen in northern Kenya per month.

Commercial phenomenon

According to the Anti-Stock Theft Unit commander Rimi Ngugi, “the government has all reasons to believe cattle rustling is today a commercial phenomenon rather than a cultural one.”

He says intelligence reports indicate that cattle stolen in Kenya are converted into meat for sale in the domestic and international market.

“We have identified that cattle stolen in the North Rift are driven for hundreds of miles from the point of theft to where they are slaughtered and meat packaged ready for export or domestic market,” Mr Ngugi explains.

He says it is evident in the abandonment of traditional weapons in cattle rustling to adoption of sophisticated arms.

“The introduction of firearms into much of the arid and semi-arid parts of Kenya has led to an arms race among the communities living in the region. These arms have, in turn, changed the nature of cattle rustling,” he says.

He says while the traditional element of cattle rustling utilised bows and arrows, currently the raids are well planned and executed with military precision characterised by use of modern and destructive weapons.

“Cattle raiders have become an organised crime outfit that utilises sophisticated weapons like MK4, G3, AK47, HK11, grenades, and mortars,” he says.

As a result, he says, cattle rustling incidents have evolved into large-scale operations where the rustlers have the capacity to exchange gunfire with security agents.

According to an International Council of Jurists-Kenya (ICJ-K) report ‘Money laundering patterns in Kenya: profiling money laundering in Eastern and Southern Africa’, cattle rustling has reached the magnitude of money laundering.

The report notes an incident in February 2001 in which cattle raiders brandishing assault rifles and sub machine-guns killed 30 people and stole 15,000 head of cattle in a raid executed in Pokot.

The report quotes Human Rights Watch to the effect that stolen livestock have been sold often across international borders rather than being kept in communities.

“Non-pastoralist raiders and youths, in addition to herders themselves, have been drawn into cattle rustling,” it notes.

It also claims that the rustling cartels hire youths, with the protection of security officers, to execute the raids.