By James Odhiambo

Kenya’s aloe exports dropped by 45 per cent in 2024 as enforcement of a decade-old ban on wild harvesting intensified, despite the country remaining without legal supplies.

With many aloe farmers now exiting, Jamleck Mang’enyi from Chemolingot, Baringo said he was earning up to Sh40,000 a month until recently, selling 50kg of aloe sap at Sh800 per kilo. But since the Kenya Wildlife Service enforcement ramped up, his monthly income has fallen to Sh25,000. “I have been left at the mercy of the KWS officials,” he said.

However, the uptick in enforcement is only completing a long-term decline for aloe since the KWS took over its management .

In the late 1990s, Kenya was a significant global exporter supplying markets that included Italy, Singapore, Thailand and Pakistan. But recent years have seen it shift to becoming a niche regional supplier, often through informal exports, with Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda accounting for over 90 percent of remaining demand. 

The change followed tightened restrictions under the Kenya Wildlife Conservation and Management Act of 2013, which banned the wild harvesting of protected aloe species such as Aloe ferox and Aloe turkanensis, and required all commercial aloe to be cultivated under permit in registered nurseries using certified planting material.

The law was passed to curb years of overharvesting that had reduced wild aloe populations across arid parts of Kenya. But farmers say the promised alternative of licensed nurseries and legal planting materials has never emerged, with early nursery initiatives launched with donor support collapsing under mismanagement.

“We used to get seedlings from the wild. Now that’s banned, but we’re expected to invest in certified nurseries without any support,” said Jamleck, who has cut back his aloe farm to just one hectare.

To legally cultivate or sell aloe from protected species, farmers must now register as propagators with the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) under the Wildlife (Aloe Species) Regulations. They are required to:

• Submit an application to KWS detailing their location, species, source of planting material, and scale of operation;
  
• Undergo inspection and verification by a KWS officer;
  
• Use only certified planting material from approved sources (not wild stock);
  
• Maintain written records of plant propagation and harvest;
  
• Renew registration annually and update any changes in activity.
  

In addition, those seeking to export must obtain phytosanitary certificates from the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) and provide documented proof of legal sourcing under CITES Appendix II trade requirements. 

This compliance process has proven costly, slow, and out of reach for most smallholders. But farmers caught harvesting or trading aloe without permits now face a minimum fine of Sh1 million or a prison term under Section 95 of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act. 

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Earlier laws imposed lighter penalties of up to Sh40,000, but those were repealed with the passing of the 2013 Act, which introduced much tougher sanctions. Other offences, such as making false declarations when applying for permits or operating in protected areas without approval, can attract additional fines of up to Sh200,000 and imprisonment of up to two years.

With raids increasing, Jamleck said he has suffered heavy losses from KWS seizures. “They come and take the crop and leave you with nothing,” he said. 

He is now considering switching to coffee, in a move that reflects the widespread exit of farmers from aloe production and the now late-stage collapse of aloe production in Kenya, 

“I can’t keep going like this with aloe. It just isn’t viable anymore,” he said.  “I can’t survive on Sh25,000 a month.”

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