Camel milk sellers hope the operation on illegal immigrants will end soon for business to return to the pre-crackdown days.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Camel milk traders are losing clients because of the ongoing operation by police.
NairobiNews has learnt that most of the milk from Isiolo, Garissa and Moyale arrives in Eastleigh spoilt due to many checkpoints on the road.
Mr Jamal Nassib who works with Texas Flavour Bus Company in Eastleigh said their five buses normally arrive from Isiolo with about 500 twenty-litre cans of milk but the number had dwindled to about 100 cans since the crackdown began.
“Transporting the milk has gone down substantially. Buyers mainly come from Eastleigh and they have either fled or been arrested,” said Mr Nassib.
He added that some had already been deported or taken back to Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps.
The Nomadic pastoralists of Isiolo who usually sell the milk are affected too since they cannot move around without Identity cards.
“We get the milk from pastoralists but it has been difficult for them to deliver to us since majority of them do not have proper documents and the security is tight,” added Nassib.
Ms Fatuma Yasmin, 30, a milk seller had many customers before the operation but they have vanished. She said she didn’t know what to do if the crackdown continued.
“Previously, one litre of camel milk was going for Sh150 but I am suffering terrible losses because it is now between Sh80 and Sh100,” she said.
Source: Nairobi News