New Livestock Bill Outlines Strict Fines for Unregistered Farmers, Tightens Production

The proposed Livestock Bill 2024 introduced by Kikuyu legislator, Kimani Ichung’wa, will constitute a new Authority mandated to regulate inputs and products of all forms of livestock including cattle, pigs, poultry, bees, sheep, goats, and camels.

The bill restricts unregistered livestock farmers from manufacturing animal feeds to sell and sets a fine of KSh 500,000 or an year’s imprisonment if this provision is violated.The authority shall also prescribe the type of inputs that will be used in livestock production, and recommends a KSh 1 million fine or 2 years of imprisonment if a livestock farmer uses disallowed ingredients.The Livestock Inputs and Products Regulatory Authority will be managed by a chairperson appointed by the President, as well as the Principal Secretary in charge of Livestock, the Director of Veterinary Services, The Director of Livestock Production, and a County Executive Committee Member appointed by the Council of Governors.“The Authority shall also monitor the utilization of imported and local animal genetic resources intended for breed improvement. It shall also regulate the production, processing, sale, and importation of hive products,” the bill enumerates.

The said Authority will discharge most of its functions under a CEO selected by the management, whose leadership term runs for three years.

The bill imposes power on the authority to register commercial livestock keepers, laying down a national database for the sector’s value chain, and deciding diminutive details like which feeds are allowed and the quality of livestock products for export.

The bill will also establish various institutions meant to deal with specific functions geared towards maximizing productivity in the sector. These include: the Livestock Inputs and Product Regulatory Authority, Kenya Livestock Research Organisation, Livestock and Livestock Products Marketing Board, Livestock Inputs and Product Regulatory Authority, Kenya Livestock Research Organisation, Livestock and Livestock Products Marketing Board and Kenya Veterinary Vaccines Institute, and the Kenya Veterinary Vaccines Institute.

These institutions will be strengthened by a list of training centres the bill has also proposed. They include the Animal Health and Industry Training and The Meat Training Institute, The Dairy Training Institute, the Livestock Training Institute, and the National Beekeeping Institute. Learners from these institutions shall be certified by the Livestock Training Institutions Examinations Board.

“The livestock training institutions shall be responsible for the development and review of training curricula, the discipline of trainees in the livestock training institutes, assessment and conduct of examinations for academic programmes and conducting research in livestock sciences and disseminate the research findings,” the bill stated.

While the bill stations itself as an integral component in the revival of the battered and largely unregulated livestock sector, the nitty demands it espouses raise queries as to whether the government would be capable of implementing it fully. If enacted to become law, the Livestock Bill may also introduce an array of new government positions even as calls for austerity and wage burden reduction intensify.

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