Land grabbers have been put on notice from illegal grabbing of Veterinary land.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries is planning to have all veterinary land across the country surveyed, titled and secured.
This is after some reports that private developers have grabbed part of the veterinary land in Kabete.
Agriculture CS Peter Munya has directed the State Department of Livestock to finalise the outstanding Cabinet Memorandum that will address amongst other issues the surveying, titling and securing of veterinary land.
“I look forward to receiving the Taskforce Report from the State Department of Livestock on the status of all the national livestock land in my office on 17th February 2021. I expect that the report will contain general and specific recommendations on the way forward on securing and titling all national veterinary land for posterity,” he said.
He spoke on Wednesday during the commissioning of the refurbished facilities at the Directorate of Veterinary Services in Kabete.
The Directorate runs various Veterinary farms across the country which are used in the early detection of livestock diseases through maintenance of sentinel herds.
Munya said these farms serve as efficacy trial centres, breeding centres, training centres, quarantine centres and veterinary drug trials centres.
“These are very important activities which are core to the work of the Directorate. I, therefore, wish to reiterate that, these veterinary land banks on which these centres are located should be protected and safeguarded from land grabbers,” he said.
He challenged the directorate to continually improve its capacity to deal with emerging and re-emerging livestock diseases to ensure that animal resources are safeguarded.
Munya noted that in order to address the problem of zoonotic diseases, the Ministry commissioned the development of a Biosafety Level 3 laboratory(BSL3) at the Central Veterinary Laboratories, Kabete in the 2012/2013 financial year at an initial cost of Sh327 million.
This was aimed at enhancing the capacity to diagnose animal diseases while protecting the staff and the environment from intentional or accidental release or exposure.
“Once completed, this laboratory will be the only Public Veterinary Diagnostic facility serving the East and Central Africa region. This facility will enhance the early diagnosis of diseases with pandemic potential. Further, the facility will also enhance Local and International Trade in animals and animal products.
He said the facility is not yet completed and my Ministry will provide the necessary support to complete it so that the capacity to diagnose livestock diseases is improved and livelihoods of livestock keepers enhanced.
“I look forward to the veterinary laboratories growing to become a Regional Hub for the diagnosis of animal diseases,” he said.
