General description

The Kenya Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Council (KENTTEC) was established by the Government of Kenya through a Legal Notice No. 77 of July 2012 under the State Corporations Act (Cap 446) with the mandate to inter alia advise the Government on the policy on T&T eradication in Kenya and its implementation, recommend standards and guidelines for T&T eradication, and co-ordinate activities of government departments, agencies and other stakeholders at the national and county levels in matters related to T&T eradication, and assume the role previously undertaken by Pan-African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC).

Realizing the need for a concerted continent-wide effort to address the T&T problem, the African Heads of State and Governments meeting in Lomé, Togo, in 2000 passed a declaration (Decision AHG/156 (XXXVI) of the 36th Assembly of Heads of State and Government) to free Africa from the T&T constraint within the shortest time possible. This culminated to the establishment of PATTEC as a continental initiative to drive the process of tsetse and trypanosomiasis eradication in Africa.

In Kenya, PATTEC was launched in 2005 with the goal of contributing to improved food security and poverty reduction in tsetse-infested areas. The objective was to create sustainable T&T-free areas by integrating suppression, control and eradication approaches while ensuring that reclaimed areas were sustainably, equitablyand economically exploited. With the support the African Development Bank (AfDB), the first phase of PATTEC was successfully implemented in three project areas covering 24,000 km2 namely, Lake Victoria, Lake Bogoria and Mwea/Meru regions. It ended in 2012.

The KENTTEC’s mandate is to coordinate the eradication of T&T in Kenya as enshrined in Legal Notice No. 77 of July 2012. The core functions of the Council are to:

1. Advise the Government on the policy on T&T eradication in Kenya and its implementation;

2. Recommend standards and guidelines for T&T eradication;

3. Determine and advise the Government on national goals, priorities and strategies for T&T eradication;

4. Co-ordinate activities of Government departments, agencies and other stakeholders at the national and county levels in matters related to T&T eradication;

5. Promote collaboration among stakeholders on T&T eradication;

6. Act as the lead agency on T&T eradication activities in Kenya;

7. Act as the Government agency for T&T eradication, and advise the Government in its negotiations and other engagements with foreign countries and international organizations in T&T eradication;

8. Negotiate, source and mobilize resources for the T&T eradication;

9. Ensure effective and efficient use of resources provided by the Government and other financiers or donors for T&T eradication;

10. Establish and maintain an appropriate T&T knowledge, information and communication system and database based on contemporary science and technology;

11. Co-ordinate, guide and facilitate research and the use of technology and development of science for the purposes of eradication of T&T;

12. Promote and facilitate activities in all relevant sectors including land use management and sustainable livelihoods to sustain T&T eradication in Kenya;

13. Promote public and private sector partnership for sustainable T&T eradication.

Role in the project

In WP3 KENTTEC will enhance and update the national atlas of tsetse and AT for Kenya by training national stakeholders on formats for vector/disease reporting, including data from stakeholders into the atlas, and collecting new field data to fill the major geographical gaps. A particular emphasis will be put on assessing the epidemiological situation of AT in non-testse area, a task that overlap with the WP1 Task 1.3 on the ecology of mechanical vectors in tsetse-free area. KENTTEC will also improve surveillance by streamlininig data recording and transmission, and by harmonizing indicators for the surveillance system..In WP5 KENTTEC will coordinate the review of Tsetse Eradication Strategy in Kenya by stakeholders, align it with the PCP approach, and develop an Implementation Road Map. KENTTEC will also contribute to capacity building (WP6) and to project coordination, dissemination and outreach (WP7).