Local govts fail to enforce butchery, abattoir standards

Kampala. Uganda National Bureau of Standards has said it is up to local governments and other relevant government agencies to ensure that standards for beef handling and animal slaughter are enforced.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Mr Godwin Bonge, the UNBS spokesperson said their mandate as a standards agencies stops at developing the standards and their enforcement is the mandate of local governments and relevant agencies. However, he noted none of them including KCCA has enforced any of them.
“Abattoirs are supposed to have cold chains to ensure that the meat is fresh, the slaughter facilities should have running water to wash off internal waste from the animals, the meat transport should also have minimum standards,” he said, adding that short cuts like use of insecticide to preserve meat are illegal and a danger to consumers.
Mr Muhwezi’s comments follow a campaign launched by the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council to enforce Halaal standards and collection of animal and poultry slaughter dues from all Butcher men in abattoirs in the country. According to Mr Mohammad Katongole, the chief executive officer of Cash Value.
Uganda Muslims Supreme Council and ministry of Agriculture appointed Cash Value as simplified collections to sensitize butchers all over the country about the acceptable standards for handling animals and poultry in abattoirs.
While launching the campaign on Wednesday, he said that since the colonial days, Muslims have had the responsibility of slaughtering animals and poultry because the religion teaches them how to slaughter animals decently. For every animal and bird slaughtered by a Muslim, he is supposed to remit Shs5,000 and Shs200, respectively to Uganda Muslim Supreme Council to cater for maintenance of the abattoirs
“Every abattoir in the country has a Mosque and that Mosque has an Imam who is supposed to slaughter animals and whichever money he collects, some of it is supposed to be remitted to Uganda Muslims Supreme Council,” he said.
Ms Joy Kabatsi the state minister for Animal Industry and Fisheries, decried the pathetic state of abattoirs in the country and the manner in which animals are handled during transportation, to slaughter houses.