ABSTRACT
Since the establishment of Kenya colony up to1963 veterinary clinical service were carried out by the private sector in commercial farms and private ranches. However, upon attaining independence the service was taken over by the public sector so as to serve all Kenyans. The government then embarked on massive training of veterinary doctors and veterinary paraprofessionals to be employed by the government. This continued until 1988 when the government stopped automatic employment of graduates from universities and colleges with the intention of liberalizing the service to enable private sector growth for more efficient services. Despite all the efforts in liberalization, the Department of Veterinary services and farmers still complained of inadequate access to professional veterinary services, increased livestock diseases incidences, inadequate supply of veterinary inputs and decline in Artificial insemination numbers leading to heavy economic losses to farmers. This research study therefore sought to determine the effect of Liberalization on performance of Veterinary Medical services in Nakuru County. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of liberalization on the performance of Veterinary Medical services in Nakuru County. The specific objectives were; to determine the effect of offloading of services, legislation and credit on performance of Veterinary Medical services in Nakuru and lastly to establish the combined effect of offloading, legislation and credit on performance of Veterinary medical services in Nakuru County. A survey research design was adopted for the study. The target population was the 34 private Veterinary medical practitioners in Nakuru County. Data was collected using structured questionnaires which were administered to the Practicing Veterinarians. Data collected was analyzed using means and standard deviation; and presented inform of tables. Inferential statistics using Pearson correlation coefficients were established to help researcher draw various conclusions on the relationship between independent and dependent variable. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the effect of Liberalization on performance. The results showed that the joined effect of Liberalization factors on performance of veterinary Medical services was significant. Among the independent variables Legislation had biggest relationship with performance and had the strongest contribution to performance. From the study the combined effect of the liberalization factors on performance was quite significant. The research concludes that though legislation has the highest contribution to performance, offloading and credit should also be combined for better improvement in performance.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
A world-wide era of liberalization has been picking up momentum in recent decades, making it a fairly new trend in the area of economic policy. The modern idea of privatization as an economic policy was pursued for the first time by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1957, when the government eventually sold majority stake of Volkswagen to private investors. The next big move in privatization came in the 1980s with Margaret Thatcher‟s privatization of Britain Telecom and Chirac‟s privatization of large banks in France. Privatization spread to other continents as Japan and Mexico privatized government owned communication companies (Megginson, Nash, Randenborgh, 1996). Another major contribution to the world- wide process of privatization has been the fall of the communist regime in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. In recent times, countries like China and Cuba, as well as many other developing countries have begun to implement privatization in the hope of stimulating economic performance. Over the period of 10 years between 1984 and 1994, there has been a world-wide shift of $468 billion in assets from the public sector to the private sector.
Liberalization of Veterinary services
According to Gathuma et al (2004), conventional Veterinary services in Kenya started in 1890 when the British colonial administration established the Department of Veterinary Services to provide comprehensive public veterinary provision in high potential areas. The large-scale dairy farms and beef ranches in the White Settler highlands had the best services, provided by both the public sector and by private foreign veterinarians. During the 1950s the demand for veterinary services increased as high producing dairy and beef animals were introduced into native African farmers.
On attainment of independence in 1963, the Kenya government inherited the veterinary structures which had operated during the colonial administration Gathuma et al (2004). Most of the private veterinarians who had served the White Settlers were non-Kenyan and they left. The government needed to respond to the increased demand created by changes in land holding, livestock-rearing and the extension of services to the population.
The Kenya government greatly expanded the veterinary service to respond to the demand that was created. Hubl et al, (1998) reports that during the 1960s and 1970s, the government was able to support a high level of public sector delivery due to the prevailing healthy economy and the generosity of various donors. Government set up new veterinary centers‟, the first of which was commissioned in 1974 and built with donor funds. By 1992, the number of centers‟ had risen to 297 but fell back slightly to 284 by 1995. The centers‟ were staffed by government veterinarians and/or Animal Health Assistants (AHAs), and were mainly located in the high potential areas of the Rift Valley. The centers provided services either free of charge or at highly subsidized levels, with farmers paying for the drugs but not for the consultation. The government provided free dip services, and also artificial insemination (AI).By mid eighties this of level of subsidy in delivery of services was no longer sustainable and the Kenya Government embarked on Liberalization of services by transferring Artificial insemination, Clinical services and Distribution to the private sector and sharing some services with the private sector with mixed levels of success. Turkson and Brownie (1999) identifies the major obstacles to liberalization and privatization of veterinary services as non- conducive physical environment, high delivery costs due to poor infrastructure, lack of appropriate support structures e.g. credit, too many illegal operators, difficult in communication, low cash economy, unfair competition from Government practice, lack of efficient control on drug supply and drug application and lastly displacement of farmers due to insecurity during election cycles.
Performance of veterinary medical services.
According to Umali et al (1992), successful liberalization has been recorded in central Africa Republic which offers an interesting example of a private, almost exclusively user-run, animal health care system through a national herder‟s organization which supplies producers with inputs and provides training in use of inputs. The same applies to Morocco (Leonard, 1993) where the liberalization process saw an increase from two private veterinarians in 1985 to 76 in 1989 and increase to 93 by end of 1991 which was estimated to be one third of Morocco veterinary graduates.
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Item Type: Kenyan Topic | Size: 48 pages | Chapters: 1-5
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