AfricaAPN

An Africa Cow burnt during Kenya's Post-Election violence

The Island of peace was Kenya’s most credible identify until the 2007 post election violent acts engulfed the country. The identity was indeed deserved as Kenyans enjoyed relative peace in a volatile Horn of Africa region.

However, the scale and speed of the politically instigated conflicts in January 2008 could have shocked foreigners but not level-headed Kenyans. This was a culmination of the failure by our leaders to fairly and squarely address such occurrences in 1992 and 1997 as well as the root causes.

By the time calm was restored across the country, the violence had claimed the precious lives of over 1,300 people and left about 500,000 homeless. The heartless acts during that period left every Kenyan a victim.

At the height of the crisis, several humanitarian agencies speedily moved in to safeguard the welfare of victims. Besides trauma, the victims testified that their basic needs were well catered for by the humanitarian agencies led by the competent Kenya Red Cross.

Initially, all humanitarian efforts were focused on human beings. Little or no regard was to their prestigious properties like the animals they reared. In fact, a suggestion to consider a cow, donkey, dog, pig, cat etc in the humanitarian plans would sound awkward if raised at any forum discussing the plight of the victims.

As a matter of fact, animals equally suffered if not more than human beings during the crisis. While it was risky to freely move around especially in the hard hit Rift Valley Province, Africa Network for Animal Welfare officers put their lives in line for a fact finding mission on the state of the welfare of animals.

The mission was almost impossible. Even the well established government administration structures could not offer help while very scanty information was available from humanitarian agencies. For the love of animals, the zeal and zest for the ANAW officers helped to keep hope alive. The situation now demanded change of strategy. The strategy was to conduct surveys in the Internally Displaced Persons- IDP Camps.

The first IDP camp to visit was Timboroa. On inquiry, the people demanded that dogs must be killed because they were scavenging on their food and dog bites had become rampant. The IDPs were also angry that the stray dogs killed their sheep, goats and calves. The second visit was at Eldoret IDP camp where hundreds of livestock were confined with over 20, 000 people in a camp. Disease outbreaks with several animal deaths had been reported as well as zoonotic disease infections.

Burnt Forest was the third camp and here the situation was worse. Several animals had serious ban and cut injuries reportedly inflicted by assailants. Tick related diseases had taken toll and livestock theft was rife.

The fact finding mission took the ANAW team to a total of 7 IDP camps helping get the gist of the challenge that lay ahead. The animals had insufficient feed as the January scorching sun kept the fields dry, violent rioters had looted or set ablaze most of the Agrovet shops, several veterinary professionals had been displaced while others were curtailed by the animosity amongst different communities. All these factors had led to a total collapse of the animal health services.

The findings called for an emergency response to the animals. Drugs, acaricide, feed, personnel and equipments were needed to launch a meaningful intervention to the plight of the animals. Armed with all the facts, ANAW swung into action mobilizing both resources and stakeholders in animal welfare for the worthy cause.

The first visit was from 24th through 27th February 2008 comprising a team from ANAW, Kenya Society for the Protection and Care of Animals-KSPCA and government vets in the Department of Veterinary Services. Five IDP camps namely Timboroa, Burnt forest, Matharu, Eldoret show ground and Makutano were visited. The team vaccinated 160 dogs and 10 cats against rabies and 30 donkeys were de-wormed. Dog feed were supplied in the camps with several of the dogs receiving treatment.

Turbo, Burnt forest, and Kachibora were the IDP camps that ANAW in partnership with the Department of Veterinary Services, University of Nairobi and the Kenya Veterinary Association visited from 10th -13th March 2008 A total of 867 animals were vaccinated against rabies, treated and/or de-wormed in the three camps. These included 19 pigs, 539 heads of cattle, 210 sheep, 9 goats and 2 donkeys. Specifically, 69 animals were treated for various ailments and 88 dogs vaccinated against rabies. Those treated were: 12 dogs, 55 cows and 2 pigs. The ailments were various including eyes and wounds from burns. Bales of hay were supplied to the cattle in the camps.

The emergency response had now picked momentum and with committed partners on board, a third exercise was quickly organized in Makutano, Endebbes, Kitale ASK, Wamuini, Kiminini, Sikhendu and Eldoret ASK IDP camps. Between 19th and 22nd March 2008 a total of 883 animals had been attended to consisting of 451 cows, 280 sheep, 35 goats, 25 donkeys, 90 dogs and 2 cats.

By this time, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga had agreed to share power and plans to resettle IDPs were in top gear. Normalcy had also returned in several of the volatile areas and thus resumption of various critical services. Herds’ boys could venture out to graze their livestock.

Having secured the wellbeing of the animals while in the IDP camps, ANAW embarked on a massive plan to help the IDPs in their resettlement. This was occasioned by the realization that essential veterinary facilities like cattle dips had since collapsed while services in severely affected areas had not yet picked up. Initially, this appeared an insurmountable challenge going by the amounts of money required.

Fortunately, Dr. Luke Gamble, the founder of a charitable organization in United Kingdom called Worldwide Veterinary Services-WVS had got wind of ANAW’s noble work. Dr. Gamble readily accepted partnership and mobilized resources for the exercise. Accompanied by his colleague, Dr. Clive Munns, Gamble arrived in Kenya on 19th May 2008 joining ANAW and other partners for a 10 day exercise.

This 4th visit was more comprehensive targeting all IDP camps in Rift valley and resettlement areas. Cows, goats, sheep, pigs and Donkeys were given FMD and RSD vaccination while cats and dogs were vaccinated against rabies. Because of high incidents of tick borne related diseases, acaricides were donated to revamp the collapsed cattle dips. There were enough drugs for all animal diseases and the local government vets as well as farmers were given some to continue with treating their sick animals.

The WVS team coincidentally came at a period when the outbreak of Peste des Petit Ruminant-PPR was threatening to kill all goats and sheep for pastoral communities. After successfully concluding the work in IDP camps and resettlement areas, ANAW and WVS toured one of the PPR affected areas-East Pokot district and donated 5000 vaccines.

An issue that was unpopular at start was finally hailed as a success. It was a milestone for ANAW to spearhead the emergency response saving the lives of 10,439 companion, farm and working animals at a challenging time in Kenya’s history.