Veterinarians now back Gov't livestock vaccination programme after initial opposition

The Kenya Veterinary Association (KVA) has officially endorsed the ongoing national livestock vaccination programme after initially raising concerns over how it was being rolled out.

KVA National Chairman Dr. Kelvin Osore said the government had now addressed the key issues that made the association demand a pause.

“We asked the government to stop the exercise earlier this year until civic education was done, stakeholders were engaged and political interference reduced. We can confidently say all these have now been addressed,” Dr. Osore stated.

The four-year vaccination campaign targets 22 million cattle for Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and 60 million sheep and goats for Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR).

The aim is to unlock access to premium export markets in Europe and the Middle East that Kenya has been unable to penetrate due to disease prevalence and traceability gaps.

“For sheep and goats, we are targeting PPR, while cattle will be vaccinated twice a year against FMD. These diseases have prevented Kenya from accessing premium markets,” Dr. Osore said.

The programme will run through an e-subsidy system tied to animal identification using muzzle-print technology — a traceability method similar to fingerprinting — to curb misappropriation.

KVA says the vaccines being used are locally manufactured by the Kenya Veterinary Vaccines Production Institute (KEVEVAPI), with private manufacturers expected to support supply in the long term.

Dr. Osore urged farmers nationwide to cooperate and bring their animals for vaccination, saying the initiative could transform Kenya’s livestock economy.

“The livestock subsector currently contributes about 12 percent to Kenya’s GDP. This program targets moving that contribution to about 20 percent,” he said.

With 70 percent of Kenya’s livestock in arid and semi–arid regions where crop farming is limited, the programme is expected to especially uplift those counties.

“For us as KVA, the politics is noise. We now have the goodwill and the technical systems in place, so we must meet the moment and do what benefits the farmer and the economy,” Dr. Osore said.