Baringo Governor Stanley Kiptis has supplied 20,000 chicks targeting poor residents.
The month-old improved ‘kienyeji’ chicks are currently being distributed to individuals and youth and women's groups.
“This is in line with the bottom-up economic strategy aimed at alleviating poverty among our people and consequently promoting peace,” Kiptis said.
Deputy President William Ruto is advocating the bottom-up economic model to win the souls and votes of the less fortunate in his bid to take over the presidency next year.
Kiptis said his administration used the 2020-21 financial year funds to purchase the chicks. The project will provide the pastoral communities with an alternative source of income, he said.
Half of the 7,886 chicks distributed to residents of Loyamorok and Mukutani villages in Tiaty and Baringo South respectively died instantly of hunger- and thirst-related illnesses.
“I received my own share of two chicks but they all died mysteriously on my way home,” Wilfred Lokol told the Star on Wednesday.
He blamed it on hunger and the harsh climatic conditions like the high temperatures, which may not be favourable to sustain the little birds.
Lokol said the county did not conduct any public participation to educate the locals on basic poultry farming techniques like disease control, handling and feeding.
The county is inhabited by warring pastoral communities whose livelihoods depend solely on livestock with little idea on how to rear chickens.
Ng’inyang resident Yuda Losutan rubbished the project, terming it a joke and saying the locals are currently facing a serious food crisis, hence cannot afford to feed the chicks.
“Yes, the project is good, we appreciate it but unfortunately we cannot afford to feed [the chicks] them,” Losutan said.
Instead, he urged the county and the national government to consider supplying relief food urgently to feed the starving population.
He blamed the prolonged drought for crop failure and massive loss of livestock since December last year.
However, county Livestock chief officer Winnie Bore dismissed the allegation of negligence, saying all the farmers were taken through civic education before they were handed the chicks.
“Indeed, we did the distribution, but it is upon the farmers to care, vaccinate and feed the chicks. It is absolutely for their own profit,” Bore said.
She said the project is aimed at boosting the economy for a majority of the locals who lost their livelihoods to the harsh effects of Covid-19.
