Response to Drought Appeal

The joint RVC Vetaid Kenya Appeal succeeded in raising over £ 12,000 to support the provision of vital veterinary services, in collaboration with government vets,  in the Tana River basin in order to keep the remaining livestock stock alive. This has included cattle, camel and goats belonging to displaced pastoralists which, crucially, could provide the next generation breeding stock.

Vetaid Kenya has been working primarily in the Tana River basin where animals have migrated to in search of grazing. This area has been fortunate in that it received some late rains meaning that there was sufficient grazing to keep animals migrating into the area from dying of starvation. However, the situation is complex as they are still at great risk of disease arising due to the large concentration of stressed animals in a restricted area with diseases that they may not have any endemic immunity to.

The funding raised by the Vetaid appeal through the RVC has been used to provide logistical support in the Tana River, including hiring vehicles and purchasing vaccination equipment to assist an already hard pressed government veterinary team. Working with vaccines provided by the FAO, this initiative has already succeeded in vaccinating 125,000 cattle and 25,000 camels against Blackquarter (Clostridium chauvoei)and Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis). In addition, 15,000 sheep and goats have been vaccinated against Peste des Petits Ruminants, Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia and Goat Pox. All these animals were also dewormed with broad spectrum anthelmintics  to help reduce parasitic stress.

It is recognized that this emergency intervention is only an initial response to a longer term problem. However, even this will have gone some way to help sustain traditional livelihoods and avoid the need for even more pastoralists to resort to a life in one of the huge refugee camps such as Dadaab. This crisis, has served to demonstrate how small organisations such as Vetaid can particularly effective in this field through their flexibility and willingness to work in some of the remote areas of the country where help is most urgently needed. Therefore the campaign will need to continue in order to help the pastoralists rebuild their herds and return to their traditional grazing area. 

In response to the longer term preparedness for future climatic disasters, Vetaid is consulting closely with the Kenyan government as well as its Veterinaires sans Frontieres partners as international agencies such as the FAO.  Dr Gabriel Turasha, Director of VETAID Kenya, has a long term commitment to enhance  pastoralist resilience to future droughts through developing fodder banks along Tana River with improved irrigation and storage systems. In addition he wants to see improved  training of pastoralists in sustainable water conservation methods, better access to  animal markets and timely control of endemic diseases.