Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) allowed 575 unlicensed butchers to operate in the city, a report presented before the City Authority has revealed.
The report was tabled by the Acting KCCA Public Health Director, Dr. Dickens Okello. The report shows that although the directorate l inspected 892 butchers last year, only 317 were licensed.
“317 butcheries were licensed. 892 butcheries were inspected and sensitised on meat hygiene and structure requirements,” reads the report.
Adding that,”149 butcheries were closed in the city for not complying with the Kampala Meat Ordinance of 2006, 145 butcheries then complied with the minimum requirements and were reopened.”
The report says that 29 of the closed butcheries were found “With chemicals in their premises. 29 half liter bottles of a local chemical concoction under the name tsumani were impounded from these butcheries.”
Dr. Dickens Okello says tsumani is a milky insecticide manufactured by a man in Wakiso that hasn’t been licensed by Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS).
According to the report, 157 kilograms of meat were impounded from butcheries around Kampala and destroyed for being contaminated and unfit for human consumption.
The report also says 9 illegal slaughter places were closed around the city. “This has been to ensure that all animals are slaughtered in authorised slaughter houses so that meat is hygienically handled, inspected and its transportation supervised by authority staff,” reads the report.
The report demanded by City Authority Council last week comes hot on the heels of operations led by the KCCA Public Health Directorate, Uganda National Bureau of Statistics, National Drug Authority and Ministry of Agriculture to crack on butchers who have been using formalin and hydrogen peroxide to preserve meat.
