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On Tuesday 9th April 2024 the Vetinery Medicine Directorate launched the Rapid Result Initiative (RRI) to accelerate inspection and licensing of veterinary medicines outlets and thereby enhance compliance.
This will in addition enhance the achievement of expected outcomes by ensuring that all veterinary medicines outlets in the country are compliant and adhere to good distribution practices that assure integrity of the medicines.
Morover it will ensure that only registered animal medicines are availed to users and that prescription medicines are only dispensed by qualified professionals who maintain proper records for traceability purposes.
Speaking during the launch of the (RRI), Livestock Development Principal Secretary Jonathan Mueke said the government is going to ensure that livestock farmers across the country have access to compliant veterinary products that are of high quality.
“One of the ways of improving livestock productivity, is to avail affordable and quality inputs. The veterinary medicines are a major input in livestock production. Effective execution of the Mandate of VMD will therefore contribute immensely to improved livestock productivity and therefore guaranteed food security, creation of jobs and increased trade/exports” said Mueke
The Veterinary Medicine Directorate (VMD) has said it will deregister all vetinery doctors dispensing prescription drugs without prescription. All licensed agrovets when issuing prescription drugs shall mandatorily issue a certification of the issuing agrovets, name and license number of the issuing officer for purposes of tracing.
VMD Chief Executive Officer, Jane Njeru said the initiative will also help safeguard animal health as well as environmental conservation.
“We are going to accelerate inspection and licensing of veterinary medicines outlets and enhancing compliance, as of now we have issued licenses to over 795 outlets including manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers,” said Jane Njeru.
To maintain the quality and efficacy of drugs Jane added that the board will be responsible for the registration, trade and distribution of veterinary drugs.
VMD is undertaking various activities aimed at enforcing compliance and shutting down of non- compliant veterinary drugs manufacturers, distributors and retailers.
Retailers found with counterfeit animal products will be fined close to a million shillings or serve a jail term not exceeding 10 years.
In the recent past, the country has experienced emerging trends of misuse, by certain individuals, of prescription animal medicines as narcotics. This necessitated a multi-agency government approach to eliminate the vice.
Food safety concerns have also necessitated government actions aimed at mitigating the use of agrochemicals and other chemicals in the livestock sector as well as enforcing observance of withdrawal periods.
