Protest pigs rescued and given refuge in foster home

The blood-licking piglets used in the protests against MPs’ demands for higher pay have found a new home.

They are being sheltered by the Kenya Society for the Protection and Care of Animals whose premises are on Lang’ata Road, Nairobi.

As the 11 piglets and a sow drank to their fill outside Parliament Buildings on Tuesday, civil society protesters were barring MPs from entering the National Assembly unless they signed a petition promising not to agitate for higher pay.

The pigs were bought from different farmers in Dagoretti and Dandora areas of Nairobi.

Each piglet cost between Sh2,000 and Sh4,000 while the sow cost Sh9,000, which means that the protesters spent close to Sh100,000 to buy the animals.

“We had a committee that was overseeing the purchase and they were fed with cow blood, which we bought from the Dagoretti slaughterhouse,” said Mr Cidi Otieno, one of the protest organisers. “We are also aware of animal rights and cannot be cruel to them as people seem to be insinuating.”

Protesters said the animals were used to symbolically show the greed of MPs. None of the pigs was slaughtered or harmed although some protesters showed up carrying the severed heads of pigs.

After police officers dispersed the demonstrators, the animals were loaded onto a police lorry and were put under the custody of the Kenya Society for the Protection and Care of Animals. Eighteen of the demonstrators were arrested and accused of cruelty against animals. They were later freed, but directed to report to Parliament Police Station tomorrow morning.

When the activists began their demonstrations at Uhuru Park’s Freedom Corner on Tuesday, there were no indications that pigs would later form part of the protests. However, shortly after the protesters arrived outside Parliament Buildings, a truck carrying the pigs also arrived. Youths who were among the protesters quickly took out the animals which they then fed with blood.

The use of the pigs elicited sharp reactions from those who were watching the protests on television.

And in what has become typical of Kenyans, they took to social media to either condemn or support the protests. Many of those condemning castigated the organisers of the protests for “slaughtering” a pig saying it amounted to cruelty to animals. By Wednesday morning, discussions as to whether “slaughtering with such cruelty” was justified continued on several radio stations in the city even as organisers moved to distance themselves from the claims.

And speaking on the floor of the House on Tuesday, Majority Leader Aden Duale — who was among those whose names were scribbled on the pigs’ backs — demanded action from animal rights crusaders against the protesters. He claimed they had violated the rights of the pigs.

Wednesday, the Inspector-General of Police, Mr David Kimaiyo, said his officers were looking for the owner of the pigs and the people who brought the animals to Parliament.

“It was also against the law to subject the pigs to unnecessary suffering,” he said.