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.
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.
“The commercial rustlers finance the raids by providing transport for the raided animals and, importantly, the arms for use. The traders buy guns for use in the raids in the open market,” the report notes.
ICJ-Kenya chairman George Kegoro claims in the report that the cartel sells the animals to slaughterhouses around the country and some are sold in the international market, mainly in the Middle East.
In 2009, a Parliamentary Select Committee was set up to investigate causes of cattle rustling.
In a memorandum presented to the committee, the National Council of Churches of Kenya general secretary Peter Karanja claimed that the elite encourage cattle rustling for their monetary interests.
“The raiders are paid to deliver specified number of head of cattle and other livestock to specific places for slaughter and sale as meat,” the memorandum said.
It further claimed that cattle rustling had transformed into a highly organised crime where the primary element is beef market.
“It is a very profitable business,” it summed up.
According to Mr Ngugi, most of the animals stolen have been traced in slaughterhouses with some beef sold in the Middle East.
He says the illegal business is being progressed by non-pastoralist communities with support from unscrupulous business men.
“There is ample evidence to conclude that cattle rustling is now controlled by a cartel of traders who are raking in tidy sums from the illegal venture,” he says.
He cites incidents of cattle rustling being reported in non-cattle rustling regions of Nakuru and Kirinyaga districts.
Mr Ngugi reveals that conduit routes for these cartels cover Marakwet valley where animals stolen from the area are driven to Kitale, about 100km away.
“We have intelligence reports indicating that from Kitale the animals are loaded on trucks and transported to slaughter houses in Nairobi and Mombasa,” he says.
“If they are intended for slaughter locally, they are transported mainly to Nairobi. If they are intended for export, they are transported to Mombasa, where they are slaughtered and then exported, mainly to the Middle East,” the report notes.
Mr Ngugi says efforts to dismantle the network have been undermined “by lack of political will as well as lack of technological capacity to track the stolen animals.”
The NCCK memorandum blamed the government for being complacent in launching a cattle branding programme for easy identification.
“It seems that the administration has no great incentive to enforce the policy of identification of cattle since it has an interest in cattle rustling,” the memorandum noted.
In his presentation, Mr Karanja indicated that commercial cattle rustlers collude with law enforcement officials, who provide them with security.
But Livestock Development permanent secretary Kenneth Lusaka defends the government saying cases of cattle rustling in the country are alarming.
“They are undermining wealth creation policies in the sector and it has reached a point where we have to act,” he says.
He says the government has launched a Sh2 billion project aimed at fitting cattle with electronic tracking devices in 10 cattle rustling prone Counties.
“Victims of the vice are losing livelihoods and the economy losing on both domestic and international trade revenues.
‘‘The government is usually called upon to restock the animals stolen alongside those lost in natural calamities,” he says.
In the absence of a reliable tracing mechanism, it has been easy to move stolen cattle without the risk of arrest since security agents rely on human instincts to track them.
According to Mr Lusaka, the project targets about four million cows and will be fully operational by 2013.
Counties targeted are Garissa, Wajir, Elgeyo Marakwet, Isiolo, Baringo, Samburu, West Pokot, Turkana, Mandera and Laikipia.
