Ambassador Francine Muyumba, a Senator in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday, February 15, reprimanded Deputy President William Ruto over comments he made about the Central African country.
Muyumba shared a video of Ruto, in which he claimed that the DRC, despite having a population of about 90 million did not even have one cow within its boundaries.
"We have a large market, starting from the DRC. They have a population of 90million yet they do not have even one cow. They have to buy their milk from Australia and New Zealand yet we have the capacity to supply (to them)," Ruto claimed.
The Senator of Hait-Katanga Province termed the remarks made by Kenya's Second-in-Command as insulting and unacceptable and consequently asked him to withdraw them.
"Mr Vice President, this is really unacceptable, with all due respect, there is a need to withdraw this statement," Muyumba's statement read in part.
She claimed that if the allegations made by Ruto were factual, then Kenyan companies would not have set up businesses in her country.
"If DRC did not have a single cow, how could Kenya sign economic deals with DRC? A (Kenyan bank) is currently making money in Congo, this an insult," the Senator remarked.
Kenyans.co.ke established that Ruto made the comments while addressing micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) business owners in Nyeri on Monday, February 14. Ruto promised to add value addition to agriculture
The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party leader noted that Kenya has an untapped market for its dairy products in Africa including the DRC
However, while explaining the magnitude of the market, his description of the DRC and its people did not sit well with Senator Muyumba.
The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) notes that with a population of close to 90 million people, DRC, which is the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa, boasts 90 million hectares of pasture that can support 40 million heads of cattle and produce 1.5 million tonnes of beef per year.
"DRC's immense livestock production potential remains under exploited because of among other challenges, lack of high-quality fodder for livestock.
"It produces only 2.3% of its national potential in beef and imports 200,000 tons of meat annually to meet demand," ILRI states in a publication dated February 17, 2021.
