Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya[Photo :the-star.co.ke]
The Ministry of Agriculture has vowed to scale up meat supply in the country through reforms which it said will enable it to meet the 1.5 million cattle quota gap of meat distributed yearly.
Agriculture Cabinet Secretary , Peter Munya, during the launch of Kenya’s first-ever meat expo revealed that already, four laws are undergoing the consultative process in parliament to improve the livestock sector.
Kenya is a high net importer of meat despite boasting of the second-largest reserves of livestock in Africa with the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands occupying 80 percent of Kenya’s region.
“To demonstrate the importance attached by the government with the meat industry, reforms on policy, legislation and institutional governance have been placed for the livestock sector, “the Principal Secretary in the state department of livestock Harry Kimutai said.
The four laws; the livestock bill, veterinary public health bill, animal welfare, and protection bill would be brought to the parliament for approval.
Munya said the government, will in the next six months, complete developing a comprehensive livestock master plan, which will enable the creation of a conducive and regulatory environment to ensure the industry thrives.
“The purpose of this review is to remove ambiguities and align them with the spirit of devolution to address emerging challenges and make the livestock sector modern and competitive as envisioned in vision 2030,” he added.
The two-day expo organized under the theme ‘safe meat for nutrition, health and wealth creation’ is aimed at providing a platform for knowledge exchange network and technology transfers among key stakeholders in the industry.
James Githaga, the Managing commissioner at the Kenya meat commission (KMC) said that the expo will enable Kenyans to know what the commission is undertaking in order to scale up meat production in the country.