President Jakaya Kikwete

President Jakaya Kikwete is today and tomorrow expected to distribute cattle, goats and sheep for drought victims in Monduli and Ngorongoro Districts in Arusha Region.

Kikwete who is on official tour of the two districts will dish out a total of 40,000 cattle, goats and sheep that the government planned to distribute early to the 6,127 households of Longido, Monduli and Ngorongoro districts whose animals died in the historic drought of 2009.

The President’s cattle restocking initiative has cost 11.2bn/- and is to benefit mostly pastoralists in the Northern Zone.

Early this year, President Kikwete launched the cattle compensating programme in Longido District, as part of his promise to pastoralists in the three districts.

In his promise, Kikwete pledged to help them recover the loss incurred when their livestock died, which affected the region four years ago.

Monduli District Commissioner, Jowika Kasunga and his Ngorongoro counterpart, Elias Wawa-Lali confirmed the visit, saying everything were in place for the Head of State visit.

DC Kasunga said President Kikwete will distribute the inaugural 500 cattle to 125 families in Monduli District at the rate of four animals per family. “In total we plan to distribute over 6000 livestock to 1500 families in Monduli,” Kasunga said.

Last February the President launched the ‘Seed Stock’ programme in Longido, by handing over 500 cattle and 30 goats to the first 16 households of Longido.

More than 6,000 families in Monduli, Longido and Ngorongoro will now benefit from the programme.

According to a statement issued by the State House, the government is not only helping the local communities to restock their lost animals, but the breeds being given to the households are of higher quality to improve the wellbeing of the pastoral communities.

The programme is in line with the state’s initiative aimed at assisting the pastoralist to upgrade their current breeds into better cattle varieties.

Statistics indicate that the cattle seed stock programme will provide the local households with 25,055 cattle and 14, 260 goats.

In the list, Monduli will get 6,184 animals, Ngorongoro 7,463 and Longido, where drought struck hardest, will receive 11,408 animals.

Each of the 6,127 households has at least ten family members which means the President’s programme will benefit nearly 62,000 people in the three districts.

A total of 2,852 households in Longido, 1,719 families in Ngorongoro and 1,484 households in Monduli will be getting the presidential cattle donation at the rate of five animals per household.

It is reported that Arusha lost more than 700,000 livestock during the 2009 drought.