A big heart for chicken, dead or alive
Left, Sheila Ommeh works on some of the samples and right, she tends to chickens reared by one of the farmers she works with in Kabete. She believes there is plenty of room for more women in science and would recommend molecular genetics — her field — which she finds suited to women “because it is a delicate field where one needs to be careful”. Photos/ JOHN MAKENI and PHOEBE OKALL
Growing up on the slopes of Mount Elgon in the small village of Namwela, chicken had widely become a staple for her community.
A meal was considered incomplete without a chicken wing or a leg. And even though the imondo (gizzard) was reserved for the men, Sheila Ommeh loved the leg. It was, for her, more delicious. That was then.
Today Ms Ommeh religiously cooks chicken every week. Her son David Omondi has a big appetite for the cuisine. For the love of the bird, Ms Ommeh would like to raise chicken in Nairobi but space would not permit. Back at her grandmother’s home in Bungoma, she has reared 300 chickens of indigenous breeds. And not for commercial purposes.
Driven by her passion for the chicken, Ms Ommeh has established an academic link with poultry, extending her engagement with the delicacy beyond the plate.
She is a graduate fellow in animal resource genetics at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Her doctoral dissertation is on how genetics can be used to increase resistance in chickens to both avian flu and Newcastle disease.
When a worldwide alert went out in 2005 about the possible spread of avian bird flu to Africa, many Kenyans shied away from eating chicken, usually a delicacy among many communities.
Plateful of chicken
But even then, Ms Ommeh continued to enjoy a plateful of chicken every week. She could go without beef or mutton or goat meat, but she wasn’t about to give up her traditional delicacy.
It’s not that she wasn’t concerned about the disease that had claimed a number of human lives in China and a handful in Nigeria. In fact, it is that very concern that has put her on her academic path.
“I had to go to the literature and see if there is any genetic relationship. In Africa there has not been much avian flu,” she said. “We thought there could be a genetic component in why there was so much disease in Asia and little in Africa.”
“I looked up in the literature and came up with a gene known as MX,” she said. “This works in the immune defence to try and protect the chicken host from the virus.”
Her research received a tremendous boost when she was recently named one of 60 women to receive an African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (Award) two-year career development fellowship.
The fellowships, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the USaid, are designed to encourage African women to pursue or continue careers in various fields of agricultural research.
And what was her immediate reaction to the award? “I cried. I couldn’t believe that I had been selected. It is a great achievement,” said Ms Ommeh, who travelled to Korea late last year on a collaborative project to collect samples of infected chickens and to develop an in vitro method to study viral diseases of poultry like bird flu and Newcastle disease.
“What was interesting is that there is a pattern of genetic distribution across these continents, and that has made us believe that there is a genetic role that is played not only by these genes but by many other genes against viral response,” she said, adding that chickens from Gambia and Senegal behave differently from those in other African countries.
Genetic diversity
It turns out that the dreaded bird flu virus did not infect poultry in Kenya, but the danger is still there.
“We found that the African chicken population — the indigenous populations — are very rich in genetic diversity. That explains why, even though the virus has been in a few countries in Africa, it has not managed to spread so much because of this rich diversity in the indigenous breeds,” she explained.
When Lifestyle visited her at the ILRI laboratories in Kabete outside Nairobi, Ms Ommeh never stopped talking about the chicken, which may explain why she was so intrigued by the outbreak of bird flu four years ago.
For a moment, one might think that the stylish 32-year-old mother of one might think only about chickens. But she is quick to dispel that impression.
“My family is my first love. I love my husband. I love my son,” she said as a matter-of-factly as she would lay out the facts of her research. She is very determined to make sure she is understood.
In her sparkling white lab coat she confidently led a tour through her department, at one point donning surgical gloves to pick up several specimen samples.
“I wanted to work on the chicken, because I thought, that way I would be able to contribute something towards the sustenance of the communities in Africa,” she said. “Chicken is kept by the African poor woman who can’t afford vaccine.”
As a student at St George’s Girls in Nairobi, she had this burning desire to become a researcher even though she hadn’t clearly figured out what area of speciality she would ultimately pursue.
“You know, people would choose careers such as a doctor or a lawyer, but I had a passion to be a researcher,” said Ms Ommeh, who received her bachelor’s degree in biomedical science from Egerton University in 2002. She pursued an MSc in Biotechnology at Kenyatta University between 2004 and 2007.
Her PhD is a collaboration between ILRI and Tuscia University in Italy. Ms Ommeh worked briefly at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) but decided that the work there -- on diseases like malaria affecting humans -- didn’t have the same impact on her.
The scientist is usually up by 4.30 a.m. when she reads for two hours, then jogs for five kilometres and prepares breakfast for her son before taking him to school. “One thing I love with running, you know you push yourself to the limit. That teaches me endurance which is important in my day-to-day life,” she said.
Her working day begins at 8 a.m. in the laboratory where she would work on a project till midday.
She said she wants to follow into the footsteps of her mother Dr Hellen Nabwala, a lecturer at the University of Nairobi, to whom she pays glowing tribute for her accomplishment as a top scholar.
“In all the hardships she faced, she was able to study up to PhD level and become a professional in her field. I asked myself if I can really beat her,” she said. “She really worked hard to see us through school.”
She is the first born in a family of five; four girls and a boy. The most memorable advice she received from her mother, she said, was that she should not stop believing in what is right, and to this day, this is an echo in her life.
Things get tough
“She always tells me even though things get tough, I should never stop believing in myself,” Ms Ommeh said.
But what transpired in 2005 at ILRI laboratories in Kabete when she was a master’s student at Kenyatta University will remain engraved on her mind.
Then 28, she walked into Dr Olivier Hanotte’s office to discuss a possible project with him. The senior researcher told her about the diversity in a livestock project he was working on that dealt mainly with cattle.
“I don’t know why in my mind I said I wanted to work with the chicken,” she said. “I just told him that I was going to work with chicken, and he said, ‘Huh, chicken?’”
But to her, chicken is much more than a research subject. In rural areas of Africa, chicken is very important, and the indigenous breeds might become extinct because some people do careless cross-breeding with the commercial population of chickens.
When asked whether her husband, Dr Luke Omondi, ever thinks she gets carried away by chickens, she laughed, looked up the ceiling for a second and then said: “I also find him mad. He, too, is working on his PhD in geo information. We always laugh at each other.”
And whenever she bumps into her childhood friends on the street, and they ask what she is doing, when she replies that she is working on the genetics of the chicken, they are often totally confused until she explains what this actually entails.
Ms Ommeh is a selective reader. “Some books are misleading, so I choose what I read,” she said.
Although she draws inspiration from reading, she also loves listening to rumba music and Congolese music legends like Tabu Ley and Mbilia Bel, her favourite.
“Their music is very creative; you don’t get that any more,” she said to explain why she doesn’t listen to any other musical genre. “Listening to music makes me able to work because some of the work here can be quite routine.”
And what does she do for fun? She rarely frequents restaurants or discotheques, but when not visiting the Nairobi Safari Walk with her son, the scientist would be found at home in her living room reading motivational books.
Once a month
She also likes to shop once a month for trendy clothes at Westgate mall and treats herself to regular trips to a hair salon to see her favourite hair designer.
Had she not become a chicken geneticist, she would have liked to be an anthropologist. She is intrigued by the research of palaeontologist Richard Leakey and said she would be interested in finding out how livestock originated in ancient times.
She doesn’t have a problem reconciling her scientific activities and her religious beliefs.
“I believe in God. I go to church and believe everything happens for a reason,” she said in her matter-of-fact researcher manner.
And she thinks there is plenty of room for more women in science and would recommend molecular genetics — her field — which she finds suited to women “because it is a delicate field where one needs to be careful”.
Asked how she would feel if chickens disappeared from the earth, she said: “I hope that never happens because for me it would mean many things.Chicken is one of the cheapest sources of proteins.”
