Livestock Marketing Decisions Among Pastoral Communities: The Influence of Cattle Rustling in Baringo District, Kenya

Abstract

The study sought to determine whether pastoralists haveresorted to sale of livestock as a form of insurance againstcommercialization of cattle rustling in which well structuredand managed cartels have organised more intense and frequentcattle raids on pastoralist, and how their decisions have affectedtheir herd size. The study was conducted among the pastoralBaringo community of Kenya. A sample size of 110 householdswas selected using multi-stage sampling procedures and interviewedusing a questionnaire. Binary Probit Model and OrdinaryLeast Squares were used in the analysis. Results indicated thatcattle rustling, particularly in its predatory state significantlycontributes to spontaneous sale of livestock even under verylow prices that in themselves could be described as raiding.The results further indicated that the number of livestock lostthrough cattle rustling dominated livestock sale and hencereduced herd size and the numbers of livestock available forsale. The insecurity generated by cattle rustling, coupled withthe poor marketing infrastructure make market inaccessible byboth buyers and sellers, resulting to increased poverty and dependencyamongst the pastoralists. Consequently, pastoralismhas become a source of misery rather than source of livelihood.