President William Ruto has maintained that the planned nationwide vaccination of livestock will go on regardless of the opposition by some politicians, explaining its importance in getting rid of diseases.
Ruto said the exercise will ensure the country is free of diseases so that they can be allowed to export some livestock products to foreign markets.
“We want to create a disease-free country so that we can market our livestock products to destinations where we have been denied access due to disease control inadequacies,” he said.
Telling off those opposed to the programme, Ruto asserted, “Anybody opposing vaccination to eliminate FMD and PPR is simply mad and unreasonable and possibly stupid.”
“Honestly, how else can you explain? or may be they do not have cattle, may be they don’t understand what this is all about,” he remarked.
Speaking in Wajir during the annual pastoralists’ leadership summit, the tough-talking head of state said it was foolhardy for leaders to continue misleading the public about the intention of the exercise.
At least 22 million cattle and 50 million goats and sheep will be vaccinated for Food and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) in the programme set for January 2025.
“It is the right to do, so if you are used to planting things... you don’t know about livestock, shut up, at least for those of us who keep cattle,” he said.
The vaccines to be used, he said, will be produced locally by the Kenya Veterinary Vaccines Production Institute (KEVEVAPI).
Urging farmers to prepare for it and shun leaders peddling falsehoods, Ruto said, being a cattlekeeper, he is ready for it.
He said the vaccination is not something new since for several years the nation has been battling the diseases.
Githunguri MP Gathoni Wa Muchomba is among those who are voiced concerns over the exercise, terming it a globalist agenda with negative outcomes that should not be allowed to see the light of day.
“I wish to change from the onset; this is not our idea. It is a foreign idea being pushed to us with some clear intentions and deliverables,” she stated.
