The Samburu Livestock Market in Northcentral Kenya

Abstract

The first periodic livestock market in Samburu District was established in Sugutra Marmar town in 1991. The aim of this study is to clarify how the local pastoralists whose culture can be characterized by so-called "Cattle Complex" reacted to the emergence of the livestock market. I examined 362 cases of the trade at the livestock market, with special reference to the reasons why they sold and bought their livestock. The reselt shows, of all the reasons why they sold the livestock, the answer "to buy other livestock" accounts for the largest percentage. They convert the male livestock into cash. Some other day, they convert the cash into the fertile livestock agin. Through this system, they artificially realize the amplification process of procreative power of the herd. The emergence of a livestock market in the "Cattle Complex" does not mean that they rushed into the market economy. The livestock market is merely utilized as a new opportunity of the exchange of live stock with the mediation of cash. The Samburu are in the process of constructing a new pastoral system which is compatible with the market economy and maintain their own culture, taking advantage of the livestock market.