25 April 2008
Nairobi — An MP wants the Government to explain what action it was taking to control a strange livestock disease ravaging northern Kenya and parts of the Rift Valley.
Mr Ekwee Ethuro (Turkana Central, PNU) demanded a statement from the Livestock Development minister, saying the disease, known as PPI, had visited losses amounting to millions of shillings to cattle farmers. He wants to be told how many animals were affected by the disease, the amount of vaccine required to tame it and how long it would take to wipe it out.
Mr Ethuro also sought to be told what steps the Government had taken to compensate the farmers who had lost their cattle to the strange disease that has since made the European Union slap a ban on beef exports from Kenya.
Responsibility
Livestock Development minister Mohamed Kuti was absent. His Energy counterpart, Mr Kiraitu Murungi, in the spirit of collective responsibility in the Cabinet, undertook to pass on Mr Ethuro's demands to him and have the statement issued next Tuesday.
The Turkana Central MP also sought a statement from Internal Security minister George Saitoti over the rising insecurity in Lodwar Town and its environs. He said that gangsters shot dead a Kenya Commercial Bank manager on April 12, but no arrests had been made.
Prof Saitoti was absent, and Tourism minister Najib Balala undertook to have the statement issued next Tuesday.
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