The Kiambu County Government has dismissed claims of an African swine fever outbreak in the county,
The Kiambu County Government has dismissed claims of an African swine fever outbreak in the county, saying cases detected months ago had been contained and no new cases reported.
Chief Officer for Agriculture John Ngigi Kuria said the county had taken disease surveillance and control measures seriously and that cases reported earlier had been dealt with by veterinary authorities.
Kuria said attempts to link the disease to the county’s piglet distribution programme were misleading and amounted to politicising an agricultural empowerment initiative that had benefited thousands of young people and households across the county.
He said the piglet distribution programme had been implemented through established animal health procedures, with the animals sourced from the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO), a government research institution with established standards for livestock breeding and management.
Kuria said the last cases reported in Kiambu were detected in May and had since been contained, adding that the disease was not confined to the county and had also been reported in other parts of the country.
Kuria said the reports had been seized upon by some politicians seeking to discredit the piglet distribution programme, which he said had continued to deliver benefits to young people and transform livelihoods.
The programme is part of Governor Kimani Wamatangi’s wider agricultural empowerment initiatives targeting young people and households through livestock and other forms of agribusiness.
Beneficiaries receive piglets as starter stock, with the county providing extension services and technical support to help them establish sustainable enterprises.
The initiative has grown into one of the county’s flagship youth empowerment programmes, with beneficiaries expected to multiply the animals and gradually build viable pig farming enterprises.
Kuria said the growing success of the programme had made it a target of political criticism, with opponents attempting to create doubts about the quality of the animals supplied and the sustainability of the initiative.
He said the county remained committed to protecting farmers from livestock diseases while ensuring that beneficiaries of the empowerment programme continued receiving technical and veterinary support.
