If you want to have beef on your menu to liven up your stew, then you will have to pay more for the meat. A low supply of meat in Nairobi is impacting the price of beef in slaughterhouses and local butcheries.

This is because pastoralists who usually supply Nairobi with the majority of animals to slaughterhouses are releasing fewer stock, leading to a 10 per cent increase in the price of beef.

*Daniel, who runs a butcher shop in Roysambu says the increase in price of meat started at the beginning of the year. A kilogramme of beef at his butchery is selling at KSh500. It previously sold at KSh440.

“We buy our meat from Dagoretti Slaughterhouse. It’s a bit expensive now, probably because there is less stock coming into the slaughterhouses,  I’m not entirely sure why but I’m optimistic the price will soon go down,” he says.

In a Business Daily article, Livestock Principal Secretary Harry Kimtai, observed that “When there is good pasture, a lot of farmers would not sell their animals as they want to fatten them and sell at a higher price on a later date.”

Because of good rains experienced last year, there is enough pasture for cattle and farmers are holding on to their cattle to fatten them up and later sell them at a premium price.

Farmers are therefore selling quality animals to slaughterhouses which means the higher prices are being passed on to customers, Mr. Kimtai said.

Despite the surge in price, traders are still keen on selling the commodity.

At the Burma Meat Market, the price of a kilo of beef has risen from KSh360 to KSh400.