Managing Director of Alpharama Limited Mr Sambasiva Rao hands over a leather bag to Laikipia Governor Ndiritu Muriithi at his Nanyuki office on January 23, 2020. The county government entered into partnership with the Athi River-based private firm in a bid to improve quality of locally produced hides and skins. Looking on are county government staff. PHOTO BY JAMES MURIMI/NATION.
The Kenyan government has issued a stern warning over the illegal smuggling of large quantities of raw hides across borders, with state officials highlighting an underground network diverting the country’s livestock resources toward West Africa.
Addressing the issue, President William Ruto pointed out that significant volumes of valuable hides are being illicitly funneled out of Kenya not only to feed foreign processing markets, but notably for consumption purposes in West Africa. The underground trade, officials warn, is depriving the domestic economy of vital raw materials needed to scale up local manufacturing, create jobs, and retain economic value within the livestock value chain.
The revelations cast a spotlight on ongoing structural leaks within Kenya’s leather subsector. Despite boasting a massive livestock population, the country has long struggled with value retention. Recent policy assessments indicate that a vast majority of Kenya’s leather-related exports continue to leave the country as raw hides, skins, or semi-processed material rather than finished goods.
The government’s renewed crackdown seeks to reverse this trend. Authorities are moving to tighten border controls, enforce strict export regulations, and penalize traders engaging in illicit cross-border smuggling networks.
The clampdown on smuggling forms a central pillar of the state’s broader strategy to revitalize the leather industry, anchored by infrastructural investments such as the Kenanie Leather Industrial Park and modernization programs for regional tanneries.
By choking off illegal outflows and redirecting raw materials to local processing plants, the government aims to empower domestic tanneries and footwear manufacturers. State officials maintain that keeping hides within the country is essential to achieving national targets such as halting footwear imports entirely within the next two to three years, scaling up local production capacity, and transforming Kenya into a competitive regional and global leather powerhouse.