At least 266 Mandera homes to benefit from goat restocking programme

Mandera Woman Representative Umulkher Kasim deworms a goat as residents and veterinary officials look on during the launch of the goat restocking programme. [Ibrahim Adan Ali, Standard]

A number of households in Mandera County will benefit from goat restocking programme.

This is being implemented through the national government's affirmative action fund.

Woman Representative, Umulkher Kasim, said some 800 goats will be released to cushion the most vulnerable pastoralists in the county.

"We are going to distribute 800 goats to the pastoralists who were hit hard by the drought across all the 30 wards in Mandera county," said Mrs Kassim.

She said the program will restore hope in all pastoralists whose livestock was wrecked and wiped out by the previous drought.

"To bolster and spar economic growth for our people who are mainly dependent on livestock, this program will benefit destitute members of our community who are pastoralists and will be the major beneficiaries."

Kassim pledged to follow up the distribution exercise closely to make sure the most affected families benefit from the livestock restocking programme.

According to Abdijabar Abdi the coordinator for NGAAF, every household will receive two she-goats and one he-goat.

"We will distribute three goats to every household consisting of male and female as we expect them to reproduce and grow in numbers so that pastoralists will recover their animals that were lost to the drought," said Abdi.

The program that was launched on 10 October in Mandera town will kick off the distribution on Saturday 14 October across all the seven sub-counties in the county.

In March this year, Mandera Governor Mohamed Khalif put the monetary value of livestock lost in Mandera at more than Sh11 billion.

He said the county has lost more than 500,000 goats, 365,000 cattle, 30,000 donkeys, and 160,000 camels.