Residents of Kakamega who want to sell their livestock will be forced to sell within a livestock sale yard once a new bill before the county assembly is passed into law.
The Kakamega County Livestock Sale Yard Bill, 2024, which underwent public participation on Thursday, October 30, 2025 at Kakamega social hall seeks to streamline and regulate the livestock trade in the county.
The County government through the regulation seeks to promote livestock marketing, oversee effective and efficient operation of livestock markets and integrate livestock markets with other supportive business enterprises and services for sustainable development.
It also seeks to enhance revenue collection from livestock in the county and enhance disease surveillance and control.
If the bill becomes law, any person selling livestock outside a sale yard will be committing an offence which will attract a fine of up to Sh20,000 or imprisonment for one month or both.
The livestock listed under the bill include cattle, camel, sheep, goat, pig, poultry, fish, lagomorphs, companion animals, donkeys, draught animals, bees, any emerging livestock or licensed wild animal and bird.
In the sale yard, the sale of livestock will be conducted through a regular sale where the price of livestock shall be determined by the prevailing market price, or through auction, live weight approval, verified weighing scale or through electronic trading.
The Bill states that a person who transports livestock for sale within or outside the county shall have to obtain a movement permit by paying a prescribed fee.
“A person shall not move livestock or cause any livestock to be moved without the livestock being inspected. The livestock must be transported in a manner that does not cause injury or suffering. Loading and offloading facilities must be provided, sufficient floor space and height allowance should be provided in holding or transporting facilities,” the bill states.
The bill also prohibits those attending to the livestock against using violence or any harmful method that is likely to cause fear, injury or suffering and ensure water, feeds and rest is provided to the livestock.
The county government will establish the sale yards and encourage private individuals or groups of county residents to establish sale yards in the locality where they can generate incomes.
Residents who spoke during the public participation forum supported the bill noting that it will streamline the livestock sector, control theft of cattle and also reduce cases of livestock disease outbreaks.
The chairperson of the Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Co-operatives committee of the Kakamega County Assembly, who is also the Member of County Assembly (MCA) for Kisa North, James Etabale, said by allowing communities and individuals to establish and run livestock sale yards, the county government will be creating job opportunities while streamlining the livestock sector.
“Commercialisation of livestock has for a long time lacked order, so we are trying to come up with regulations that will minimise theft of livestock from one place and their sale in another, because we shall have data on all the cattle sold in the county for ease of tracing,” he explained.
“The saleyards will also enable the sellers to get competitive prices for their livestock where they could only fetch a lower price if sold in open air. We visited Marigat, in Baringo County for benchmarking to come up with the bill, there is a goat sale yard whereinone market day they were collecting over Sh160,000,” he added.
By Moses Wekesa
