Agriculture CS Mutahi Kagwe tags a bull’s ear with an electronic ear tag at Chaka Ranch in Nyeri during the official launch of the Animal Identification and Traceability System (ANITRAC) on July 8, 2026.
The Ministry of Agriculture has rolled out an animal identification system in a move aimed at opening up lucrative international export markets for Kenya's livestock products.
Agriculture CS Mutahi Kagwe said the Animal Identification and Traceability System (Anitrac) will also ensure Kenya complies with international sanitary and phytosanitary standards required by premium meat markets.
He said without a traceability mechanism, Kenyan meat remains invisible to premium buyers, denying it access to higher prices in the world's lucrative meat markets.
"The modern meat consumer wants to know more than whether meat is safe. They want to know where that animal was born, where it grazed, which veterinary officer treated it, which vaccines it received, which medicines were administered, which abattoir processed it and which laboratory certified it," Kagwe said.
"That level of transparency is no longer optional; it is becoming the global standard and explains why Kenya is accelerating the implementation of Anitrac."
The CS said the digital platform will create a credible livestock database that will support the monitoring of livestock movement, strengthen disease surveillance and facilitate export certification across the meat value chain.
While noting the government had initially faced resistance from individuals involved in livestock theft, Kagwe said the programme would significantly improve security in pastoral areas by reducing cases of cattle rustling.
"Honestly, banditry is going to end and one of the reasons it is going to end is because of technology. Once you are on Anitrac, it doesn't matter whether the animal crosses into Uganda or whether you are moving it from one clan to another, we will find it," he said.
Kagwe, who spoke in Nyeri during the Kenya Meat Conference, also expressed confidence that Anitrac would unlock financing opportunities for livestock farmers by allowing livestock to be recognised as verifiable assets.
He challenged financial institutions to develop products tailored to the livestock sector instead of relying on conventional lending models.
"One of the other reasons the livestock industry has not had financing is because I can walk into a bank and claim I have 100 animals, but I have no way of verifying this information," the CS said.
"But with Anitrac, you are able to walk into a bank and show the livestock that you own. At any one time you know where they are and you can geographically locate them, so they become bankable assets."
The Anitrac is a digital platform and mobile application designed to uniquely identify livestock through an electronic ear tag.
The electronic tag can trace all activities throughout the life of an animal, including its birth, vaccination, breed, movement, slaughter and export.
The data collected are uploaded to a national database using a mobile phone application.
Similar livestock identification and traceability systems have been implemented in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the programme is targeting more than 22 million cattle across the country.
The programme will first be rolled out in Siaya, Kiambu, Taita Taveta, Garissa, Kitui and Narok counties before being cascaded to the remaining 41 counties.
