Kenya Veterinary Policy, 2015.

The Veterinary Policy is provided for in the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution of Kenya. It aligns developments in the animal resource industry to the Constitution as well as the Kenya Vision 2030 and the international animal health laws, treaties, agreements and conventions ratified by Kenya. The Policy provides a definite roadmap for the development of animal resources in Kenya. It addresses animal health, production, welfare, food safety and trade among other concerns. Animal health services are integral to the prevention, control and eradication of animal diseases that occasion huge economic losses and adversely impact livelihoods. The health of animals is among the leading priorities in animal productivity and at all stages of production must be guaranteed. Due to inadequate focus on animal health, enterprises involving food animals have low returns on investment resulting in high poverty levels in animal producing areas (pag. 8). The Veterinary Policy aligns the animal resource industry in Kenya to the Constitution, the relevant provisions of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures, the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the EAC Treaty (pag. 22).
The Policy provides an enabling environment for safeguarding animal life, health and welfare as well as animal propagation and production for food security and economic development. It seeks to ensure that Kenyans benefit from proximate and quality health by guaranteeing animal health, welfare and production services (pag. 2). They provide humankind with animal-derived proteins, carbohydrates, fats and minerals that are key requirements for nutrition and food security (pag. 13). Animal resources in Kenya will be used sustainably for the benefit of humanity in accordance with the following principles: 1. A veterinary service that is compliant with international standards; 2. Protection of human health from animal-related hazards; 3. Observance of sanitary measures in animal value chains; 4. Investment in research and innovation in animal resources; 5. Conservation of animal genetic resources and 6. Enhancement of livelihoods and economic gains from animal resources. Aquatic animals and their products significantly contribute to food security while certain groups of fisher folk entirely depend on fishing for their economic prosperity and livelihood. The demand for animal proteins is constantly increasing in the face of shrinking land sizes thus proteins derived from aquaculture can provide an important alternative to those obtained from terrestrial animals. However, disease outbreaks in aquatic animals are rarely detected and can cause extensive losses (pag. 26).
The broad objective of the policy is to professionally safeguard animal health and welfare, increase animal production and productivity and promote trade in animals and animal products for sustainable food security, food safety and economic prosperity. The policy is based on the following specific objectives: 1. improve the management of animal diseases, food and feed safety, animal emergencies, animal welfare, marketing and trade in animals and animal products. 2. ensure compliance with sanitary requirements along animal value chains. 3. develop breeding programmes, conserve animal genetic resources, biological diversity and regulate biotechnology in the development of animal resources. 4. develop marketing infrastructure for animal resources, enhance value addition and improve efficiency along the animal value chains. 5. improve safe drugs and biologicals. 6. enhance research, training and capacity development. 7. establish efficient governance structures for veterinary services. 8. provide for an efficient veterinary infrastructure ensuring internationally acceptable service delivery and quality assurance of animal products. 9. enhance cooperation between national and county governments in the delivery of veterinary services. 10. integrate environmental protection and climate change mitigation and other cross-cutting issues in veterinary services and provide a framework for disaster preparedness and response.
Cross-cutting issues encompass aspects that impact the animal resource industry directly or indirectly but are not limited to animal resources. They include the environment, climate change and disasters, gender and pro-poor measures, youth, credit facilities and land (pag. 42). The national and county governments, in collaboration with stakeholders, will: 1. Ensure that all strategies, programmes and projects in the animal resource industry are engendered; 2. Promote gender transformative strategies that encourage active participation of both men and women in the animal resource industry; 3. Mainstream pro-poor measures in plans, projects and programmes to develop the animal resource industry (pag. 44).
The governance must be within an effective, structured national legislative framework supported by appropriate financial and human resources. The establishment of good governance of veterinary services, based on a close partnership between the public and private sectors falls within the responsibility of the government. Effective governance of Veterinary Services contributes to “public goods” such as food security, public health and alleviation of poverty (pag. 39). The national government will: 1. Support development of strategies for early warning, preparedness and rapid response to mitigate disasters that affect animals; 2. Support development of appropriate insurance packages to respond to disasters in the animal resource industry. The county governments will: 1. Mainstream, in the animal resource industry, early warning, preparedness and rapid response to mitigate disasters that affect animals; 2. Promote animal insurance to address losses that arise from natural and man-made disasters that impact animal resources (pag. 43).