Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed on Wednesday wrote a protest letter to the Government of Tanzania after 1,300 heads of cattle from Kenya were forcefully auctioned.
President John Magufuli's government took the drastic action after Kenyan herdsmen crossed the border into Tanzania in search of pasture.
According to the Tanzanian government, the herders were punished for encroaching on the nation's natural resources.
[caption caption="Foreign Affairs CS Amina Mohamed with President Uhuru Kenyatta"]
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The move sparked outrage from the Kenyan herders after some of them were arrested and placed in custody for alleged trespassing.
The pastoralist community then sought the government's help to intervene as their livelihood was at stake.
In response, CS Amina Mohamed organised talks between the two nations to resolve the conflict, talks which she says were unsuccessful.
"We had hoped that diplomatic talks would resolve the situation but we failed to reach an agreement. It is at this point that we sent our EAC (East Africa Community) representative on the other side to deliver the protest note.
The Communications Director at the CS's office told Kenyans.co.ke that in the protest letter, "Kenya expressed its displeasure on the treatment of Herders and burning of chicken and a copy was delivered through the EAC CS."
"The history we have had with Tanzania is very good and whenever there were issues we have resolved them. For this reason, it was a shock to the herders," the CS observed during the Wednesday presser.
She went on to outline that the issue of cross-border grazing for the pastoralist communities is one that cannot be easily solved through the punitive measures taken by President Magufuli.
"It is going to be very hard to undo history, there have always been people who live across borders and continue to do so on a daily basis because, in essence, it talks about who we are and it should not be taken away. This is going to be one of my concerns when we hold talks.," she explained.
The CS also conveyed that the Kenyan government had been gracious with Tanzanian grazers who crossed over into Kajiado county with an even larger number of cows.
"Our protest note is to show our concern over what has taken place and we are still in negotiation, we hope to resolve this issue," the Secretary concluded.
[caption caption="Foreign Affairs CS Amina Mohamed"]
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