“One side are the sellers (livestock herders) and on the other buyers (livestock traders). The sellers want their livestock sold for a higher price and the traders want to capitalize on the drought to buy herds, it is hectic,” a distraught middleman, Noor Muhumed, told AfricaNews.

Ordinarily, trading in the market is very fast process where a middleman cut the deal between the seller and the buyer, but the effect of the severe drought has seen a dramatic decline in the prices of livestock.

Unlike before where agreeing on the price could take few minutes, the process is now much longer since the pastoralist who bring their livestock to the market no longer trust the middlemen.

Few buyers

“I depend on the number of livestock I sell on behalf of the pastoralist who come from the villages but now there are very few buyers, everyone want to sell, the price have also decreased, it is really a big problem,” said Noor Muhumed, a Livestock trader at the market.


Noor Muhumed Photo: Abdilatiff Maalim

Livestock traders at the main livestock market in Mandera say, the prices of livestock have declined by almost 50 percent.

Majority of the people here in North Eastern province depend on livestock products, so a drop in the price of livestock products ideally means a drop in the living standards. “I have never found myself in this situation, I sold three goats for 1500, a sack of maize goes for 1300 shillings, the balance will not be enough to take care of the needs for my two families it is only God who can save us,” said 35-year-old Abdullahi Abdi .

The father of three who ekes a living as pastoralist says the situation is even made difficult with no escape route.

“There is nowhere to go, this is the first time the drought has hit all three countries Kenya , Ethiopia and Somalia, before whenever we are faced with similar problem we used to run to either Ethiopia and Somalia today we are all in the same boat of desperation,” he added.

Eighty-year-old Osman Adan Muhumed had to travel for two days covering a distance of about 300 kilometers from Ashabito village which is along the Kenya- Ethiopia border on foot.

His mission was to sell eight of his goats at the Mandera Livestock market, but the elderly frail old man only managed to sell one goat with no buyer to match his offer.

“I am eighty years old, in my life I only witnessed this in 1982 this time round the situation is the same in all the countries, the pans have dried, the goats are dying. In the market they do not fetch good money,” said Osman.

Destocking programme

A program assistant at the Mandera District Livestock Marketing Council, Ibrahim Mohamed said it is high time the government should start the destocking program to salvage the livelihoods of pastoralist in Northern Kenya and other arid areas.

“We can have millions of bags of maize in our grain reserve but the number of bags is not the solution to the severe drought that bites across the Northern Kenya region,” said Ibrahim. “Our government needs to adopt measures that are aimed at restoring the livelihoods of the pastoralists. The destocking program will be a big welcome.”

In an interview with AfricaNews, Mohamed Gabow, the Mayor of Garissa Municipality, which has the largest livestock market in East and Central Africa, said the severe drought situation in the region has a huge decrease in the prices of livestock. He described the severe drought situation in the area as ‘terrible’.

"Our local authority heavily relies on livestock to generate revenue, but the current drought situation has seen the revenue drop by more than 50 per cent,” Gabow said.

“Before the current drought set in, sales ranged from 1,900 to 2,300 head of cattle during the weekly market days. A fortnight ago only 700 head of cattle were sold and last week only 500 were traded," he said.