Kenya’s possible export policy of the future is going to make PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) their biggest criticizer. The possibility of these exports is driven by a weird demand that is supposedly spurging from China. Kenyans are looking to boost their economy by exporting commodities that have low demand in their country. However, the nature of their commodities severely limits their market.
On a global level, the issue at hand is the possibility of spreading an infectious disease like COVID, if the trade of these commodities is left unregulated. Moreover, the animals whose parts are being shipped out are already vulnerable and leading organizations are warning against their trade to avoid their extinction.
Kenya wants favourable trade with China
Kenya has been warned against dropping all its eggs in one basket. Data show Kenya imported nearly $4 billion of goods from China in 2021 but sent out only $1.5 billion to Asia. This means that China is engineering a hostile takeover of the Kenyan economy, which is resulting in lesser growth opportunities for Kenyan businesses.
Kenya is trying to forge ties with Indonesia, the economic giant of South East Asia with a population of about 270 million could be a favourable market for Kenyan goods. Indonesia’s ambassador to Kenya, Dr. Hery Saripudin assured Kenya in an interview, “I believe that every single product from Kenya can be accepted by Indonesians: coffee, tea, avocado, roses, and many other products that you have a comparative advantage on.”
Kenya’s Roots Party leader George Wajackoyah, if elected, is keen to export hyena testicles, dog meat, snake meat, snakeskin, and snake venom to markets like China to boost the Kenyan economy by increasing its exports to China.
“It is said that a thousand hyenas have got about 2,000 testicles and that testicle is used for medicinal purposes in China, and its value is about Sh6 million which is much more than ganja, therefore, we will export the testicles,” he said.
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Global Disadvantage
China is the biggest of the few markets for dog meat. Also, China has a demand for unconventional commodities such as snake meat and hyenas testicles. The spread of COVID-19 has made the medical community reject the promotion of usage of unconventional animal meat in any part of the world. COVID-19 is widely believed to have evolved in Wuhan (China) and is possibly the result of different meat-eating habits such as consuming bats by some part of the Chinese population.
The promotion being pushed by the Kenyans is a consequence of demand by the Chinese. The world cannot tolerate the severe neglect of medical standards and allow countries to indulge in activities that could become a larger threat to the world order and the lives of millions of people.
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UVPK (The Union of Veterinary Practitioners of Kenya) Secretary-General Miheso Mulembani said that snakes and hyenas may diminish if their products are traded due to the low population of the species in the country.
“Wajakoyah’s proposal to trade in snakes and hyena testicles is a recipe for another pandemic owing to the spill of viruses, bacteria and parasites from hyenas and snakes in the wild to human beings,” he stated.
Wajakoyah’s proposal is also a violation of the charter Kenya signed under the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife (CITES). The rejection of the stability of the world order endorsed by China is setting up the world for another pandemic.
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