Dr Daniel Karugu is a holder of degree of Master of Science in Veterinary Epidemiology and Public Health of the University of London and Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine of University of Nairobi. He is a long-standing public servant with over 30 years’ experience. For 16 years he served as a field veterinary officer in Tana River and Nyeri districts with duties ranging from animal disease control, vector control, veterinary clinical service, extension services and veterinary public health. His role in designing, implementing and supervising a mass vaccination project for 13 districts of Central and Eastern provinces earned him a Certificate of Fellowship from the Kenya Veterinary Association, the professional body of veterinarians.

He then took up district veterinary management duties for 3 years in the then Tharaka and Meru Central districts which included development and supervision of programmes in animal health and veterinary public health as well as district budgeting, procurement and accounting of resources.

Moving to the national veterinary headquarters in Kabete for 8 years, he performed national duties comprising assisting the National Director of Veterinary Services in import risk analysis and export sanitary certification, supervision of sanitary services in the country, supervision of quarantine and border inspection points, and preparation of country position papers on animal health and trade. He was also deeply involved in the development of national contingency plans for Rift Valley Fever and Notifiable Avian Influenza. He was the National Coordinator for livestock disease-free zoning programme for 3 years; the programme targeted eradication on zonal basis of Foot and Mouth Disease and Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia, the confirmation of free status for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, and suppression of 9 other trade-sensitive diseases of cattle, sheep and goats in the proposed free zones.  He also got deeply involved in policy-making and participated in the development of the Veterinary Surgeons and Veterinary Paraprofessionals Act and its regulations, the National Livestock Policy, the National Apiculture Policy, the First Medium Term Plan of the Kenya Vision 2030, the Agriculture Sector Development Strategy and the Draft Veterinary Policy. Working with other experts under the auspices of United National Industrial Development Organization, Dr Karugu in 2015 and 2016 developed manuals for good practices for the dairy, apiculture and meat industries in Kenya, and trained stakeholders using the manuals.

Regionally, he participated at the East African Community (EAC) Sectoral Committee for Agriculture and Rural Development and in various other structures and actively participated in the development of various regional instruments, including the Protocol on the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures for the community. He was also actively involved in the preparation of the World Trade Organization’s Kenya and EAC Trade Policy Review Report of 2012.

Internationally, he participated in process notifications and answers to enquiries within the World Trade Organization (WTO) community. He also actively participated in national capacity assessment and development of country position as prelude to the development of the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation. He also participated in the assessment and development of the national capacity for management of zoonotic events for the International Health Regulations of the World Health Organization. Further, he also provided insights to a member of an ad hoc group of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) that was developing standards, guidelines and recommendations on animal welfare for beef cattle production systems.

With the advent of devolution of veterinary services function in Kenya, Dr Karugu was seconded from 2015 to 2022 to Nairobi City County government where he served in veterinary public health and animal health leadership culminating in performing as acting County Director of Veterinary Services. During his tenure, a plan was drafted for the management and elimination of dog-mediated rabies in the city. He was also instrumental in entrenching zoonoses and food safety official control services in the County Integrated Development Plan, 2018-2022.

During his term in Nairobi City County Dr Karugu was instrumental in pioneering the city’s food system documentation, management and governance while serving as acting County Director of Food System and Sector Programmes. His office partnered on this subject matter with Milan Urban Food Policy Pact Secretariat, ICLEI Africa, Urban Early Warning Early Action Consortium on Food Security Surveillance and the Kenya Office of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Under his active technical-level leadership and management, the Nairobi City County Food System Strategy was developed and launched.

At the professional level, Dr Karugu is a member of the Kenya Veterinary Association (KVA) and have serviced in various positions in the association, including Central Region Branch Honorary Secretary, Central Region Branch Vice-Chairman, member of the national Kenya Veterinary Association Council and Chairman of the national KVA Legal and Policy Committee. Through the Association he participated in huge advocacy works related to veterinary professional interests, public policy development, legislation and good governance in the animal and food industry. He is also registered by the Kenya Veterinary Board, the statutory professional body, and has also served the Board in various capacities, including chairing the Inquiry and Disciplinary Committee for 3 years. His work for the veterinary profession earned him the Public Service Award from the Board in 2009.

Within the limits of the principles of avoidance of conflict of interest under Kenyan law, Dr Karugu has contributed in his private capacity to various projects. At the African Union he is a trainer of trainers for EAC on WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and international standards under the auspices of World Organization for Animal Health and Codex Alimentarius Commission in the venture called “Participation of African Nations in Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards-setting Organizations Project”; in 2012 he trained senior officials of competent authorities and stakeholders on the Structure, Mandates, Operations and Standard-Setting Process of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE),  Risk Analysis in Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the WTO and its Application in Standards-Setting,  Science-Based Arguments and Devising Import Health Measures for Animal Commodities. He also trained officials of veterinary competent authorities from the Horn of Africa on Veterinary Regulation and Governance and the International Standards in Support of Animal Health in 2014 for the African Union Inter-Africa Bureau of Animal Resources.

Dr Karugu implemented in 2016 a project for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) called “Study of Impact of Global Bee Diseases on COMESA Honey Production and Policy and Biosecurity Options for Mitigating These Impacts”. The project involved analyzing the honey production in the COMESA, its export earnings from the product, the projected demand for COMESA honey globally and the status of bee diseases in the region. It also involved a risk analysis of incursion of bee diseases arising from importation trade with European Union, including identification of policy and biosecurity measures to protect COMESA apiculture from such risk.

At the EAC, Dr Karugu in 2017 and 2018 implemented a project for Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International called “Capacity Building in Risk Assessment, Official Controls and Reinforcement of Inspection Service in EAC”. The project involved development of animal health risk analysis manual and training competent authorities and stakeholders using the manual, assessing the animal health official controls and organizations and training competent authorities on filling any capacity gaps; it also involved documenting inspection procedures and capacities for most traded animal commodities in the EAC that would enable animal health inspecting bodies to be compliant with ISO 17020 and also training the inspection bodies on these measures. Further, the project developed recommendations for rapid response for animal health and food safety emergencies for the EAC.

At home in Kenya, Dr Karugu in 2015 implemented a project for the Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) Kenya Association called “Gaps on Integration of elum Principles and Practices in Regional and National Agricultural Policies & Legislation”. This was an analysis of regional and national public policies, legislation and implementation measures relevant to ecological agriculture and the special interests of smallholder farmers. The study identified gaps which may be filled through the advocacy work of PELUM. A similar task was done in 2015 and 2016 with respect to policies, legislation and budgets in 33 county governments in which PELUM members operated.

Dr Karugu has also done projects for the Agricultural Industry Network in 2015 and 2018 on analysis of draft agricultural policy and draft sugar regulations, respectively. In 2017 he did a study for the Cereal Growers Association on the impacts of produce cess on agricultural producers. He also reviewed the draft irrigation policy and irrigation draft bill for the Kenya Organic Agriculture Network in 2015 and in the same year reviewed the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) with respect to biodiversity and the seed interests of smallholders for the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition. He also reviewed the Murang’a Tea Bill of 2014 and also the feasibility of recommendations for developing the tea value chain of 2018 for the East African Tea Trade Association.

Dr Karugu has continuously trained in his long career. He trained through short-courses in 2005 in participatory rural appraisal, participatory monitoring and evaluation and in business process re-engineering. In 2009 he was trained as a trainer on WTO, OIE and Codex Alimentarius rules of trade. And in 2012, he trained in Information and Analytical Tools for Agricultural Market Access, Trade Negotiations and Trade Policy Development by FAO in Kenya. He also trained in 2018 on strategic leadership development programme at the Kenya School of Government.

Dr Karugu was the lead researcher and author of the Paper: “Risk of Incursion of Aphanomyces invadans into Lake Victoria from Zambezi River Basin, International Journal of Life Sciences Research, ISSN 2348-3148 (online), Vol. 7, Issue 1, pp: (147-160), Month: January – March 2019, available at: www.researchpublish.com. He has also authored several conference papers, including “A model for good veterinary governance: overview of draft veterinary policy” as well as media articles such as “Why Kenyans should have a robust debate about global treaties”, “Prevent food contamination for a healthy nation” and “How to protect food from contamination during distribution and marketing”.