Kagwe Asserts No Farmer Would Be Forced To Have Their Animals Vaccinated
The Mt Kenya Times 
Mutahi Kagwe
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
The choice is yours but we are encouraging livestock farmers to seize this opportunity and allow their cows and goats to be vaccinated.
As a government, we are ready to vaccinate your livestock free of charge if you bring the animals and tell us to do that. I grew up when seeing the livestock being vaccinated.
The drive is geared towards eradicating the threat of diseases once and for all.
The President had earlier stated. Kenyans and other human beings around the world had all along been receiving the jabs particularly when young.
These jabs were meant to protect and shield people from being infected with terminal ailments such as polio and Tuberculosis (TB).
Mr Mutahi Kagwe, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary (CS) nominee, has said that no farmer would be forced to have their livestock vaccinated.
He however told members of the National Assembly’s Vetting committee. If you approve my name and I’m appointed by His Excellency The President to serve in this docket, I would immediately embark on this assignment of sensitizing the farmers on importance of this drive.
This is a noble exercise as it is designed to protect the animals from getting infected with the diseases, thus improving their health and productivity, he noted.
President William Ruto had earlier announced that the National livestock vaccination campaign will kick off this month of January.
In his New Year Message to Kenyans, the President however clarified that the drive is voluntary.
The choice is yours but we are encouraging livestock farmers to seize this opportunity and allow their cows and goats to be vaccinated.
As a government, we are ready to vaccinate your livestock free of charge if you bring the animals and tell us to do that. I grew up when seeing the livestock being vaccinated.
The drive is geared towards eradicating the threat of diseases once and for all.
The President had earlier stated. Kenyans and other human beings around the world had all along been receiving the jabs particularly when young.
These jabs were meant to protect and shield people from being infected with terminal ailments such as polio and Tuberculosis (TB).
Have you ever heard a person stopped farting after receiving these jabs?
The President further referred his critics as the enemies of Kenyans, not him as the President.
When you resort to inciting livestock farmers not to allow their animals get vaccinated, you are ruining their lives.
This is because a huge chunk of them relied entirely on these animals for their livelihood.
Notably, the campaign, the first-of-its-kind, targets 21 million cows and 52 million goats and sheep in the republic of Kenya.
This campaign aims at combating the livestock diseases including foot-and-mouth and Peste Des Petits (PPR), which mostly affects small animals.
The overall goal of this campaign is to improve the quality of the meat and other animal products and hence increase the demands in the international and local markets.
The pastoralist communities will become the biggest beneficiaries. This is because they entirely rely on livestock to eke a living.
This is not the first time livestock vaccination programme is taking place.
The only difference is that this time this campaign is well organized as it is being done in a holistic manner.
Dr Ruto took this opportunity to hit out at his critics for making misguided, unreasonable and unsubstantiated claims.
What do you stand to gain when you mislead millions of Kenyans who rely on livestock for livelihood?
The evil spirit cannot prevail. We will do it but the vaccination is voluntary.
The state has since clarified that the vaccines are manufactured locally by Kenyans. The nationwide vaccination exercise will also be carried out by well trained Kenyan veterinary officers
In my previous article, I argued that the critics were opposing this campaign for political reasons.
They did not want the President to succeed. They know this campaign will shape up his legacy and they will lack something to tell Kenyans during the 2027 general elections. The strategy of trying to unseat him will fall flat.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga Is A Writer And Social Commentator
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