PS MUEKE REQUESTS THE AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE TO HELP BID FOR RESOURCE ALLOCATION TO KEVEVAPI, SAYING THEY HAVE FAILED FOR THE LAST 14 YEARS

PS MUEKE REQUESTS THE AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE TO HELP BID FOR RESOURCE ALLOCATION TO KEVEVAPI, SAYING THEY HAVE FAILED FOR THE LAST 14 YEARS

Friday, 20th February, 2026
Parliament Buildings

The Principal Secretary of the State Department for Livestock has requested that the Agriculture and Livestock Committee help them bid for additional resources for the Kenya Veterinary Vaccines Production Institute (KEVEVAPI).
Mr. Jonathan Mueke said this today while appearing before the Committee chaired by Hon. John Mutunga (Tigania West) for review of the 2026 Budget Policy Statement.
According to the PS, KEVEVAPI never receives resources despite having a lot of potential for vaccine production, disclosing that local vaccine demand is higher than what they can supply, as they can only produce 45 million doses of vaccine out of the needed 80 million doses.
Our ask to this Committee is to help us bid for resources to modernize KEVEVAPI and build its capacity to produce enough vaccines for local consumption and export. We export to only 13 countries now. We have been trying to bid for resources for the last 14 years. Still, the money is not forthcoming, so we ask this Committee to prioritize us and allocate resources towards the modernization of KEVEVAPI,” PS Mueke said.
Hon. John Makali stated, “I actually have had an opportunity to visit KEVEVAPI and looked at their machinery and equipment, which are totally obsolete, and looking at their potential, don’t you think we need to really prioritize strengthening it? We give the impression that we have a very large vaccine market in East and Central Africa, and we have put vaccine production as our priority agenda.”
Reacting to PS Mueke’s presentation on resource gaps and underfunding, the Committee Vice-Chairperson, Hon. Brighton Yegon, lauded the PS for doing a lot with the limited resources available to his department; however, he urged him to use the approved AI-A totalling 2.3 billion to bridge the resource gap.
The Committee Members also raised an issue regarding the milk coolers, including how they were distributed and who the beneficiaries are across the constituencies.
The Committee earlier met with CS Mutahi Kagwe, who decried what he termed a disconnect between their priorities and the allocations made to them by the National Treasury.
“Even within the limited budget available, there is a disconnect between what we propose and discuss with the National Treasury and Parliament and what we are allocated to as a Ministry. Sometimes the allocation does not reflect our priorities. There is also a need for clarity between the two State Departments in the budget,” the CS said.
CS Kagwe was appearing alongside Agriculture PS, Dr. Paul Rono.