Kenya’s agriculture minister has ordered donkey slaughterhouses to be shut down as concerns rise over the theft of the animals by gangs seeking their skin for use in Chinese medicines.

Kenya has become the epicentre of a fast-growing industry in Africa to supply donkey skins to China, where a gelatin called ejiao made from boiling them down is used in a traditional medicine believed to stop ageing and boost libido.

Kenya has four licensed donkey abattoirs — more than any other country on the continent — which slaughter about 1,000 donkeys a day, according to government data.

But growing Chinese demand for ejiao has led to a black market with gangs hired by skin-smuggling networks to steal donkeys…