By Rose Mukonyo, Joy Wanja Muraya and Josphat Muema
Ann Wambui Muthiru grew up immersed in science, always knowing her path would eventually lead her to a laboratory—or somewhere closely connected.
Her researcher scientist parents would tag her along as they went to work on their projects, so she learned technical stuff at a very early age after interacting with microscopes and other lab equipment as she played and studied in her parents’ lab.
“Being in a lab was so intriguing. I would see the microscopes and other equipment, and I knew that was what I wanted to do. I never knew exactly what I wanted to pursue but felt it would have something to do with a lab,” she says.
Little did she know that she would take pride in being called a cultural broker one day. Despite her early fascination with laboratory work, Muthiru’s journey took an unexpected turn when she became deeply involved in fieldwork as a PhD Fellow at the University of Nairobi under the Feed The Future Innovation Lab for Animal Health.
Today, she has combined her scientific expertise with cultural insights to tackle the pressing issue of East Coast Fever among the Maasai in Narok County. She uses culturally sensitive approaches to share with the communities how to address the pressing issue of East Coast Fever.
“I facilitate understanding and communication between different cultural groups. I ensure that interventions reflect community needs and try to bridge gaps between external agencies and communities.
This helps to avoid the pitfalls of top-down interventions and promotes sustainable, community-driven solutions that respect local knowledge and practices,” she explains.
Muthiru has been working with the Maa community in Narok County in partnership with other researchers on East Coast fever.
Her dreams of being a researcher are being actualized in a different field of study: anthropology, where she focuses on adopting the Infection Treatment Method (ITM), an immunization process for East Coast Fever.
Using the knowledge attained through her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Masters of Arts in Gender and Development Studies from the University of Nairobi, Muthiru is trying to understand what people know about East Coast Fever and their current methods of controlling it.
She has also focused on the ownership of cows in Narok and how bringing the East Coast Fever vaccine would affect both men and women.
“Once I understand what they know and practice, I can communicate more effectively about the vaccine. I will use language and concepts that are familiar to them, building upon what they already know and understand. This makes it easier for the community to understand the importance and benefits of the vaccine, potentially increasing their willingness to use it,” she says.
She combines her scientific expertise with cultural insights to tackle the pressing issue of East Coast Fever among the Maasai in Narok County. She uses culturally sensitive approaches to share how to address ECF with the communities.
From her stay in Narok in the last four years, she has learned that there are three production systems: the mixed farming system, where the farmers can keep animals but do not migrate; the agropastoral farming system, where the farmers can grow crops but occasionally migrate; and the pastoral system, which keeps on migrating in search of feed and water.
In this community, East Coast Fever is called ‘Malaria ya Ng’ombe’ (Malaria of the cattle). “When I ask them if they know this disease, livestock keepers from specific areas say it is malaria because when they go to the hospital, they are told they have the same disease their cattle usually have, although East Coast Fever is not a zoonotic disease,” she explains.
Zoonosis is an infectious disease that has jumped from a non-human animal to a human.
The community often associates East Coast Fever with stagnant water and mosquitoes, similar to how they understand malaria transmission. Recognizing this, the researcher uses this existing knowledge as a starting point.
According to her, the Narok community prioritizes specific livestock diseases, and East Coast Fever is at the bottom of the three production systems. This means that other diseases are more important depending on whether they affect a large herd of livestock or are unpredictable. If the disease is unexpected, it will be classified as severe.
“Another thing I have learned by staying with the pastoral community in Narok is that they heavily rely on information from their kinship networks and peer groups; therefore, if I use this established social structures to educate them on the need to vaccinate their cows against East Coast fever then the likelihood of acceptance increases,” she says.
Further, she says studies have shown that when a vaccine for East Coast Fever is introduced, livestock productivity will improve, which translates to more milk.
Her PhD research highlights the value of traditional knowledge and practices in livestock disease control. Her study also calls for improved communication to integrate cultural and scientific knowledge and interventions to enhance livestock health.
Her study also reported that farmers had coined the local word to refer to East Coast Fever as Oltikana, which is mainly linked to observable signs, or the organ system affected, which is “Ntikan,” which translates as parotid lymph nodes. This revealed that ECF affected the lymph nodes of the cattle.
Muthiru also noted that extra milk produced by the healthy cattle encouraged higher incomes.
“The milk belongs to the women; they sell it and use the money to join the merry-go-round to make household improvements because, to them, an empowered woman can keep the family together,” she said.
Besides academic pursuits, Muthiru also polished her animal husbandry skills.
“I learned how to milk a goat. I had some skills in chicken rearing from my childhood days when my father would tell my brothers and me to slaughter a chicken if we wanted to eat chicken. Today, I can comfortably slaughter a chicken,” she says.
The soft-spoken anthropologist loves interacting with people because she cannot miss out on a field trip with friends.
She fondly remembers being invited to travel with her friends to Mombasa. Although she had not planned for it, she immediately accepted the invitation and went on the road trip. When not camping, she cares for dogs and cats or watches a movie in the house.
Muthiru is one of the ten fully sponsored PhD fellows under the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Animal Health (AHIL) program. This program is being implemented in 600 households in Narok County in Kenya to improve human nutrition, economic welfare, and resilience by removing constraints to cattle health and production in Kenya and the East Africa region.
Washington State University leads the AHIL consortium with Kenya-based partners, including the University of Nairobi, the International Livestock Research Institute, and Scientists from the Kenya Medical Research Institute and Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization.
The five-year program combines laboratory and field intervention studies to improve the uptake of animal health interventions and measure the impact on household well-being and the nutritional status of women and children.
Muthiru’s research on livestock health and community well-being has the potential to have a positive impact on the future, which is a beacon of hope.
The Innovation Lab for Animal Health’s vision is to improve human nutrition, economic welfare, and resilience by removing cattle health and production constraints in Kenya and the East African region.
East Coast Fever fact sheet
- Due to cattle illness and deaths, ECF imposes a substantial economic burden in several parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
- East Coast Fever, ECF, a cattle disease informally known as ‘cattle malaria,’ is extensively spreading in farming communities.
- ECF is a tick-transmitted disease caused by the protozoan parasite Theileria parva. It kills cattle within three weeks of infection through a fluid build-up in their lungs, otherwise called pulmonary edema, drowning the animals.
- ECF is common in central, eastern, and southern Africa and has been reported in 12 countries in the region: Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, southern Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It kills at least one million cattle annually.