My Donkeys Have Ability To Recognise First Wife, Homa Bay Farmer

• Lucas Oloo, a farmer hailing from Homa Bay county, reveals donkeys have become part of his life on the farm
• This is due to his interaction with the animals for over two decades, to the point he has mastered their mannerisms
• Notable at Oloo's native home is the ability of one of his many donkeys to effortlessly recognise his first wife

Homa Bay: Lucas Oloo is one of the donkey owners in Ndhiwa Sub-county within Homa Bay County.

He has reared donkeys for the last 20 years and studied and understood their behaviours.

Being a polygamous man, he says a visitor would easily know which house belongs to his first wife when the donkey arrives with luggage.

"When I come with any of my donkeys carrying luggage, it will have to offload it in front of the first wife's house," he told TUKO.co.ke.

Oloo relishes every moment he spends with his donkeys and treats them with care and respect.

How tse tse fly bite robbed Oloo of his favourite donkey

He enjoys their company, friendliness, and manpower, which he relies on to run a number of errands that generate income for him and his family.

He recounted with nostalgia his close ties with Kadogo, his favourite donkey.

Kadogo lived for 11 years before dying after a tsetse fly bite, leaving behind three young ones.

"Kadogo would help me bring goods from Kadem, the furthest end of Migori county, all the way to Ndhiwa, and she never got angry. On the way, I would sing her favourite song, and she would walk faster and happily, narrated Oloo, adding that the beast of burden can never miss a way it had used.

"After loading the luggage on her and giving her the go-ahead to start the journey, you walk behind it, soothing it as it leads the way to your destination," he added.

Apart from manpower and identifying the first wife, Oloo said that the animal with the same physical identity can also act as a security guard, mostly at night.

How can one endear themselves to a donkey?

According to the donkey enthusiast, no stranger or an 'unclean' individual would access the home without the donkey sending signals to the homeowners.

"At night, when your home is fenced, and there's nothing that the donkey can damage, you can leave it untethered so that it can be free and, most importantly, guard the home against strangers and 'unclean' individuals," Oloo illustrated.

He said one secret to keeping a donkey closer to you is giving them a name and talking to them one-on-one.

"People tend to believe donkeys are scandalous when that is not the case. You need to talk to them on the face because they listen and follow instructions," noted Oloo.

For the twenty years that the 62-year-old has domesticated donkeys, he has raised 31. But as of now, he only has two; others have died.

"Before Ripple Effect (an organisation aimed at addressing the extinction of donkeys) came to train us on ways of caring for donkeys, tsetse flies occasionally attacked our animals and killed most of the donkeys in our area," Oloo said.

Apart from death, he said that some people also stole donkeys to sell to neighbouring counties, decreasing the number of donkeys in their households.

How many donkeys are in Kenya?

According to Oloo, acquiring a donkey today is harder than it was a long time ago when a donkey cost only KSh 3,000.

"It's only a foal that one can find at KSh 5000. A grown donkey goes up to KSh 12000," he added.

George Okoko, the Ripple Effect project facilitator, spoke during the National Donkey Day celebrations in Ndhiwa Sub-county on Friday, May 17.

According to the 2009 national census, the total number of donkeys nationwide was estimated at 1.8 million, while in 2019, it was estimated at 1.1 million.

"Soon, when the welfare of donkeys is not looked into, this animal may experience extinction since even the farmers tend to practice a dangerous raring habit- rearing only one sex of the donkeys," he noted with concern.

He urged farmers to avoid rearing only male donkeys and include female ones in the ecosystem so that reproduction can take place and the numbers can increase.

Story by Florence Owiti, TUKO.co.ke's Homa Bay correspondent.