Abstract
This paper focuses on establishing actors and their roles in the slaughterhouse processes in the Nanyuki slaughterhouse of Laikipia County. This is understood through the lens of the food system approach, based on the study findings of an anthropological study of pastoralism in Laikipia County, Kenya. This paper is guided by the specific objectives aimed at establishing the actors and their roles and describing the effects that institutional settings and changes have on slaughterhouse operations. Using a new institutionalism approach in social anthropology, the paper focuses not only on the actors and their roles but also on how externally shaped beef prices and standards shape the rules regulating access to the food processing processes for pastoral actors. We argue that this has an impact on pastoral economies and the question if and how pastoralists are able to benefit from this change in the food system. The study also identifies institutional settings and changes related to management, security and health concerns that impact the slaughterhouse operations and processes resulting from the dispensation of the devolved system of governance in the country. Data collection was through key informant interviews and unstructured observation of the slaughterhouse. The findings reveal economic and social relationships among actors involved in slaughterhouse operations and processes. The study also identified changes in formal institutional settings that impact the slaughterhouse operations, notably movement and no-objection permits as well as transportation and condemnation certifications. As a result, increased scholarship is recommended into slaughterhouse operations and processes as a means to understand the value addition that pastoralism has on the economic and food sustainability of the pastoral regions, counties and the nation as a whole.
Highlights
Lokuruka (2016) in his work on the slaughter practices in Kenya illustrates that over 70% of the country’s livestock population is found in the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), most being reared by pastoralists such as the Maasai of Laikipia
Study population and sampling procedure The study population consisted of Maasai pastoralists who were directly involved in slaughterhouse operations, veterinary officers, livestock buyers, livestock brokers, flayers and butchers who purchased either the live animals from the pastoralists at the slaughterhouse or the processed livestock products
Livestock slaughtering in slaughterhouses In Kenya, the livestock industry contributes to the gross domestic product (GDP) and food sustainability and supports the arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs) accounting for 90% of employment and close to 95% of household incomes (Nyariki et al 2005)
Summary
According to Fitzgerald (2010), the slaughterhouse is an institution where economic and geographic changes in the production of food, cultural attitudes towards killings, social changes in small communities and the changing sensibilities and relations between humans and livestock can be viewed. Juma (2015) defines the slaughterhouse as a plant responsible for the slaughter of animals, and there are two types: the simple slaughterhouse that does very limited processing and the complex slaughterhouse that conducts extensive processing. Singh et al (2014) regard a slaughterhouse as a facility where animals are butchered or killed forIn most developing countries like Kenya, slaughterhouses that represent excellent production sites for beef are in most cases slaughter slabs which are less mechanized and with limited reliance on technology (Afnabi et al 2014: 477). Study population and sampling procedure The study population consisted of Maasai pastoralists who were directly involved in slaughterhouse operations, veterinary officers, livestock buyers, livestock brokers, flayers and butchers who purchased either the live animals from the pastoralists at the slaughterhouse or the processed livestock products. I interviewed 20 people out of which we had 16 men who included: pastoralists, butchers, livestock buyers, veterinary officers, green offal cleaners, splitters, skinners, and those who slaughter the livestock at the slaughterhouse.
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