Lawyers demand identity of vaccine to be administered on Kenyan livestock

Two Eastleigh lawyers have written to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development to disclose the name and the chemical composition of the vaccine to be administered on an estimated 70 million livestock countrywide next month.

Abdulhakim Dakir Sheikh and Omar Faruk Maalim of Dahir, Affey and Associates Advocates have urged the ministry to make public the vaccine's benefits and risks to the livestock farmers, consumers of livestock products and the animals as a result of the vaccine.

The lawyers have demanded that the ministry reveal the real drivers and sponsors behind the mass livestock vaccination programme and their scope of engagement and involvement in Kenya for purposes of accountability and transparency.

The two say they have taken keen note that the January 2025 mass livestock vaccination drive is seemingly backed by the Bill Gates Foundation which has invested millions to reduce Kenyan livestock methane emissions and which has always been the subject of many allegations.

The lawyers based at the BBS Mall say some of the allegations that have been made against the seemingly racist organisation include "fixing the cow not to burp and fart methane to an extreme degree or make beef without the cow".

They expressed grave concerns over the announced mass livestock vaccination programme to combat transboundary diseases, fight global warming through reducing methane gas emissions by the Kenyan livestock and a bid to access the global market by meeting the required vaccination standards.

"We understand the importance of ensuring the health and wellbeing of livestock across the country through vaccination and not repulsive evil science. However, the announced mass vaccination has disregarded the rights and autonomy of the Kenyan livestock farmers' prior involvement and consultations before the decision was arrived at," the lawyers state in the demand letter.

"The unanimous decision to embark on a mass livestock vaccination without consultations and participation of the Kenyan livestock farmers who shall not only be directly affected by the hidden and unknown recurrent costs of the vaccination but also face the related risks of pushing their livestock into what will permanently alter the genetic structure of their local breeds with far-reaching health consequences to Kenyans."

The lawyers also say that they are aware that there has been no management of individual livestock through continuous real-time management of their health or use of any sensors and analytical tools to generate data which could have informed the decision to vaccinate the livestock against identified transboundary diseases.

They also add that no livestock diseases have been listed as a hurdle for failure to access the global market for Kenya's livestock products to conclude that raising vaccination standards on the livestock will aid in the global export of Kenyan livestock products.

The advocates have also asked the ministry to prove that it involved Kenyan livestock farmers in an engagement that informed the decision to roll out the vaccination exercise.

"That the Ministry provides detailed minutes of consultations and engagements, if any, with the Kenyan livestock farmers that informed the decision to mass vaccinate the Kenyan livestock," reads one of the demands in the letter copied to the Commission on Administrative Justice (Ombudsman).

The lawyers want the government to explain how the long-term benefits of the livestock jab would outweigh the expected recurrent vaccination costs as a result of the mass vaccination.

The government has been claiming that the exercise is part of a global campaign to inhibit methane emissions.