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"content": "predicament or handicap that has not enabled us to exploit the potential in the livestock industry. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, last year, the Government spent Kshs15 billion to handle rustling in this country. I think that this is wasted money. This is money that could have been used in these counties to do better things than running around chasing cattle rustlers all over the place. The cost is only in monitoring. I did not say anything about the lives that were lost in the process of rustling in this area. So, I think that the very first thing that we would need to do, and I want to urge the counties that deal with livestock to do, is to first and foremost create peace. We can do so by making sure that we control rustling. Today, Information Communication Technology (ICT) can do a lot of things. I believe that the chip will eventually stop rustling in this country. I know that a pilot study was done in this country, where a small microchip is implanted in the abdomen or stomach of an animal and has a lot of information, including its location at anytime. Therefore, these animals could be traced and tracked. Anywhere these systems are being used, 90 per cent of the animals are returned. Therefore, rustling becomes a useless business even for those who are doing it. If we were able to do that in this country, we would forever eliminate cattle rustling in this country and eventually save on the amounts of money that would have been used to monitor and safeguard the country. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I want to urge those counties that deal with livestock, including mine, to invest in this programme, information or new knowledge that can help us to stop rustling in our country and maximize on the benefits of livestock. It is not only the use of a chip that can help us to track the animals. One of the conditions in the European market for the use of animal products is that they must identify exactly where these products have come from. This chip has that information. Therefore, placing those chips on the animals that we have here, would actually allow us sell our animal products in the European market. There are so many other purposes that we can use the information that is contained in the chip for. I am not asking that this country re-invents the wheel because this technology has already been introduced. These systems are used in Botswana, South Africa, Venezuela and Australia where they are doing big business. They have turned around livestock keeping into a huge economic activity. I am sure that we can do that without necessarily having to invest a lot in experimenting on these systems. These are systems that are already working. We should use them, especially in these areas that we are talking about. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, if we can do that, many benefits will accrue. As a matter of fact, the farmer will feel secure with his animals, knowing that they will not be stolen next week. They will, therefore, be able to invest in other things like improving the breed. Unfortunately, in the counties where livestock are kept, the improvement of breeds is not one of those priority areas. There is a lot of in breeding in terms of animals. The size of animals that we have in these areas is getting smaller and smaller. We just need to secure our animals and, therefore, look at other things like improving on the breeds. The next issue that I think we also need to look at in livestock areas is that, unfortunately, counties that keep livestock are also bordered by large ranches that keep wild animals. We are challenged with zoonotic diseases in these animals. These are diseases which move from wild game to domestic livestock. I am aware that European countries will, probably, not purchase any of the products where livestock intermingle The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}