Nairobi — Mr Karuku Waigwa has seen some of the worst times as a livestock farmer in Nyeri District. For many years, he has been buying and fattening cattle at his 100-acre farm in Kiganjo before selling them.

One of the communal cattle dips constructed in Nyeri District awaiting to be launched.

Several years ago, he suffered heavy losses after some of his animals died from a myriad of tick-borne diseases.

"One time, I lost livestock worth Sh300,000 from East Coast Fever (ECF) following the collapse of the local cattle dip more than 20 years ago," he said.

Just like it was then, tick-borne diseases continue to pose major challenge to many livestock keepers in Nyeri District despite millions of shillings having been used over the last three years to revive cattle dips.

Use of communal cattle dips at some point had been the most common way of combating tick-borne diseases among small-scale livestock keepers. Many of the dips, which were either colonial carry-overs or built immediately after independence, collapsed forcing most farmers to reduce their herds.

Changed tact

Others changed tact like Mr Waigwa who moved his 50 head of cattle from his Ndurutu village to the Kiganjo farm where he could access a private cattle dip.

"I pay Sh15 to dip a single head of cattle in the private cattle dip," he said.

There are fears among farmers that the tick-borne diseases are posing a threat to the revived and now vibrant livestock industry.

The district, particularly the expansive Kieni constituency, remain vulnerable to the diseases due to high migration of animals.

Last September, the area reported a rise in tick-borne diseases from 401 cases in August to 428.

Within the same month, the number of animals that were dipped decreased by 4,147 due to migration of pastoralists mostly in Kieni.

According to a report by the district livestock office, only a 5.5 per cent of the cattle in the district were taken to community cattle dips.

In February, Mukurwe-ini division where Sh450,000 from CDF has been used in the revival of cattle dips, only 138 animals were taken to the local cattle dips compared to 160 in Nyeri.

A total of 642 cases of tick-borne diseases were reported in the district in the same month. They included the ECF (132), anaplasmosis (498) babesiosis (10) and heart water (2).

But even as diseases pose a real threat to the industry, some farmers are dismissing communal cattle dips as an outdated way of controlling ticks.

"It is no longer practical to operate a communal cattle dip because many farmers have resorted to zero-grazing," says Mr Baragu Mutahi, a farmer in Kirichu area of Kiganjo location.

Mr Mutahi, who is also an official of the Mt Kenya Human Rights Watch group, says revival of cattle dips in the district has been used by some people to pilfer CDF kitties.

He argues that dipping of cattle was only practical in old days when farmers used to have large herds. Most of them have reduced their animals to an average of three, thus making it easy to apply other tick control measures.

Public funds

However, hefty chunks of public funds have already been channelled towards the revival of the dips.

For instance in Nyeri municipality, five cattle dips are not operational even after more than Sh2.2 million from the local CDF kitty was allocated for the projects over the last three years. The dips include Gitathini, Kiamwathi, Ndurutu, Kamuyu and Nyaribo.

Information posted on the CDF website shows that a total of Sh781,347 was allocated for the revival of the cattle dips in 2004/05 financial year while Sh750,000 more was used the following year.

More money would be required to purchase tick-control chemicals.

The local CDF committee chairman, Mr George Mwai Kang'ong'a, said the facilities were awaiting formal launch so that they could be handed over officially to respective communities. This would instill a sense of ownership for the projects.

According to Mr Kang'ong'a, the committee had written to several firms asking them to quote for the supply of tick control chemicals but only Unga Farm Care Limited had responded.

"Some dips do not even have water and we have to ensure the availability of commodity before the launch. We will also buy acaricides and then hand the facilities over to the community," said the official.

Whether the community will accept the facilities and agree to contribute to their maintenance remains to be seen.

Much higher

The amount of money required for maintenance of communal cattle dips is far much higher than their average expenditure in spraying animals at home.

The Nyeri district livestock officer, Dr William Ipwii, says by the end of last year, the number of operational cattle dips had reached 146, up from 136 in the previous year. He attributed the increase to the CDF contribution.

Last year, for instance, Dr Ipwii says, a total of 3,486 litres of tick control chemical were purchased through the CDF kitty.

"The only problem is sustainability and management of the facilities by the dip committees. There is need to train the management committee members on financial management," said Dr Ipwii.

In several instances, cattle dips have been constructed with public funds without consulting experts which has led to poor workmanship.

Dr Ipwii cites two cattle dips in Kieni East division and another in Kieni West which had to be redone after they collapsed even after the projects had drained hefty amount of CDF.

"The dips had already consumed not less than Sh100,000 and they only called us after they ran into problems," the Dr Ipwii said.

Ndurutu cattle dip committee under the chairmanship of Mr Waigwa is also embroiled in a controversy with the local CDF committee after the latter allegedly brought outsiders who did repair work that did not match the Sh300,000 allocated to the project.

The committee submitted another proposal to the CDF committee which is yet to be approved. The facility is yet to become operational.

After the collapse of cattle dips, most farmers had resorted to spraying their animals using knapsack sprayers that they also use with other chemicals to spray their crops.

Waigwa says some animals had lost eyesight due to mix-up of chemical.

He says cattle dips would remain the most effective tick control measure as most farmers have not adopted zero-grazing.