Former President Yahya Jammeh at his farm with some of the cattle
By Fatou Touray
Under a scorching January sun in Kanilai, once the private fiefdom of former President Yahya Jammeh, hundreds of cattle shifted uneasily in the dust. Over the course of three weeks, 725 of them were sold at court-ordered auctions held across three former presidential farms — part of a broader and troubled effort to liquidate the assets amassed during Mr. Jammeh’s 22-year rule.
The auctions, overseen by the Sheriff’s Division of the Gambian judiciary, yielded just over 8.3 million Dalasis, according to an official report released in March 2018 but only recently made fully public. The funds, deposited into a Trust Bank interest-bearing account, represent a sliver of the wealth once controlled by Mr. Jammeh, who fled into exile in Equatorial Guinea in 2017 after a contested election.
But if the cattle sales offer a glimpse of restitution, they also reveal the staggering logistical and ethical complexities of repurposing a dictatorship’s spoils.
The bulk of the sales took place at Kanilai — Mr. Jammeh’s birthplace and the symbolic heart of his empire — where 625 heads of cattle were sold. Smaller herds were liquidated at Farato (67 cattle) and Banjulinding (32). Each location presented its own challenges, the report said, but Kanilai proved particularly chaotic.
There, livestock were left to graze freely across sprawling lands. Herdsmen, unpaid for months, struggled to round up the animals. Some cattle, officials admitted, simply vanished — having wandered off and become untraceable. The lack of structured management reflected what critics call the systemic disarray inherited by the post-Jammeh administration.
“These weren’t just cows,” said a well-known political commentator. “They were tied to a web of power, favoritism, and neglect. Selling them is just the first step. There must be accountability. Who bought them, and how much was paid for each animal?”
The cattle auction represented a distinct part of the government’s wider asset recovery initiative launched in 2017, aimed at reclaiming properties, vehicles, luxury goods, and business holdings suspected of being bought with stolen public funds. While other assets—such as used cars, excavators, and kitchen appliances—were sold through transactions with clearer documentation, the cattle sales lacked transparency, with no details provided about the buyers, sale prices, or beneficiaries.
An exhaustive report by journalist Mustapha K. Darboe in The Republic newspaper, published last week, cast doubt on the integrity of some asset dispositions and galvanized protests organized by the activist group Gambians Against Looted Assets (GALA). Demonstrators filled the streets of metro Banjul area, demanding clarity on where the money had gone and who had benefited.
In response, the Ministry of Justice published an inventory of seized assets—ranging from vehicles and heavy machinery to household goods—complete with buyer identities, reserve prices, and final sale amounts. However, this level of meticulous transparency stood in stark contrast to the apparent informality and lack of oversight surrounding the sale of livestock.
“There’s a danger that this process was treated like a garage sale,” said a political economist who spoke to this medium. “Livestock requires stewardship. The absence of a coherent asset management plan meant real financial losses — and possibly more serious breaches of fiduciary responsibility.”
While the D8.3 million deposited into government accounts offers a symbolic victory, it represents only a fraction of the estimated hundreds of millions of dollars allegedly misappropriated during Mr. Jammeh’s rule. Independent audits have yet to be made and published.
For villagers in Kanilai, the auctions marked a visible end to the Jammeh era — a time when the ex-president’s presence loomed large not only in politics, but in the lowing of cattle at dusk. With trucks rolled out of the village bearing cattle bought by businessmen from across the region, many probably watched silently, unsure whether the sales marked justice, closure, or merely another form of disappearance.
As Gambia continues its halting transition from authoritarian rule to democratic accountability, the cattle — once symbols of presidential excess — may yet serve as emblems of a more transparent future. Or, if mishandled, they may come to represent opportunity squandered.