Goats grazing. More than 200 goats and dozens of cows in Kajiado South Sub-County have died of a deadly type of foot and mouth disease resistant to drugs. FILE PHOTO
Dozens of pastoralist families in Kajiado South Sub-County have abandoned their homes as a type of foot and mouth disease resistant to drugs destroys their livestock.
The herders have been grappling with the disease for three months. Some officials blame the outbreak on animal trade on the Kenya-Tanzania border.
More than 200 goats and dozens of cows have died of the disease.
The outbreak has made a number of families move from Remito village to Olsirra-Padga, some 50 kilometres away.
Herders say local veterinary officers have been treating their animals for foot and mouth with little success.
“We have not seen any progress even as drugs are given to our animals. We have no choice but to shift to other villages and save our animals. The Kajiado county government has done little to help us,” Mr Sitoya Sontika, one of the herders, said.
County Veterinary Services director Jackton Acholla said his office has not received complaints but would send personnel to the villages to monitor the situation.
He said the department has not carried out mass livestock vaccination recently.
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