Three weeks ago, Kenya Insights wrote about why the Population of donkeys in Kenya has dropped by half in less than a decade. China interests in Kenya has seen an increase in demand for donkey meat both for local consumption and skin for export to China a move that has now caused a sharp decline in the animals in Kenya.
According to Animal rights activists, the overgrown demand to feed the billion population of Chinese could soon make donkey extinct in Kenya where they play a vital role as beasts of burden mostly in rural areas.
A few weeks after, a Chinese company operating a donkey abattoir in Lodwar, Turkana County is on the frying pan for selling uninspected donkey meat and enslaving local workers.
Angry Lodwar, Turkanas, resident have now urged the police to investigate Silzha Company Limited over claims of environmental pollution and mistreatment of local workers by the Chinese bosses. The firm is located at Napetet in Turkana Central, five kilometers from Lodwar town, and is run by two Chinese nationals.
According to local authorities, Silzha slaughters an average of 30 donkeys daily and exports the donkey meat to China and other countries.
“It is more than one a year and some of us have not been paid. I don’t have any source of money. We have been patient for a long time to the extent the walls of trust have started cracking. Donkeys from Sasame, Karebur, Kokuro, and Lomanakeju in Turkana North have not been paid for since last year. We have reported the issue to police station Lodwar OB 18/20/05/2019,” Mohammed Katembo, a field Manager of Silzha Limited said.
“Life is becoming hard here because we work with no pay, my family depends on me, my children are at home because of school fees, we are tired of empty promises each and every time,” Production supervisor Lucas Ereman stated.
There have been also a lot of concerns on the safety of the meat. “We are giving government investigative agencies one week to ensure that this Chinese company is investigated and health measures put in place to guarantee the safety of meat and food handling, failure to which we will hold demonstrations” Joseph Emuria, a resident warned.
Emuria said the slaughterhouse has led to the theft of donkeys across the county as unscrupulous people rush to supply animals to the fast-growing abattoir.
“I foresee the extinction of donkeys in future if these the Chinese donkey meat dealers continue slaughtering the animals at this rate,” said Mr Emuria.
He alleged that the company is exporting rotten meat to unknown destinations as public health officers take no action. The local residents led by their area chief Patrick Lorogoi also raised concern over increasing cases of donkey theft in the area. Lorogoi said complaints of donkey theft have been reported to the police who have launched investigations.
“We suspect that the Chinese are buying stolen donkeys unknowingly. We have established that they don’t ask for livestock movement permits, but that is a matter under investigation,” the Chief reported.
He said he has received complaints from several residents working as casual labourers in the Chinese firm who claim they have been working without payments for several months.
“There are several Chinese nationals doing manual jobs in the abattoir and we suspect they are illegal immigrants. We have asked the police to investigate them but no action has been done. We have been demanding for our pay for more than three months but they have refused to release our dues,” a worker in the abattoir who declined to be named for fear of victimization alleged.
On their defense, Liu Wenchen and Jiang Baogui, the Chinese nationals managing the abattoir denied the claims, saying they export quality donkey meat.“We package and sell all the meat to our international markets. We don’t want wastage because we buy the donkeys at high prices,” he said.
But inside, workers were busy loading donkey meat in carton boxes amid a stinking smell of meat. There are no refrigerators to store the meat awaiting export.
“We are not happy with the manner in which the Chinese are doing the donkey meat business. We have reported this matter to relevant government officers but our concerns have fallen on deaf ears.” A donkey keeper Geoffrey Lokuruka said.
Turkana Central sub-county Police Commander David Mburukwa said police are investigating six Chinese labourers working in the abattoir after complaints that they were in the country illegally.
“For now, we are not looking into the complaints raised by locals working in the abattoir because that is a labour issue and can be handled by other organs,” Mburukwa said.
However, company manager Liu Wanchen said the firm was facing financial challenges and promised that they will be paid soon. Ironically, Liu acknowledged that they usually export spoilt meat to avoid unnecessary losses because they buy animals at higher prices.
Turkana Veterinary Doctor Benson Longo’r told The Standard the county was also investigating the abattoir for failure to adhere to health standards and Kenyan rules. He said the county department had previously warned the management against dealing in uninspected donkey meat.
“There are times we have stopped the company from slaughtering some sick donkeys that according to our assessment, their meat would be unfit for consumption,” he said.”Let them pack spoiled meat but they will not get transportation permit,” he warned.
