Vet association boss defends commissioner over Kampala meat ban

The Uganda Veterinary Association (UVA) president, Dr Daniel Kasibule, has defended the embattled Commissioner of Animal Health, saying those undermining her orders on a quarantine in Kampala over Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) are violating the Animal Disease Act.

“It is not good to make sickness political. Diseases should be handled in a technical manner. People are being taken into the Parish Development Model. People are entering into enterprises of livestock and if we leave them susceptible to such devastating disease then we are not fair to them, courtesy of people’s appetite,” Dr Kasibule said.
Dr Kasibule explained that the Commissioner of Animal Health was fulfilling her mandate.

“The commissioner has got a mandate to pronounce a quarantine. And she did it in writing. By the time the person is given the mandate, there are so many reasons as to why it was given,” he said.
“After doing her background check and determining that such a disease is prevalent, Kampala is so sensitive, nobody can do such a thing out of impulse. So there should have been a back-and-forth check-up. Somebody is doing wrong out there,” he added.

He was commenting on the refusal by the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) leaders to implement the directive by Dr Anna Rose Ademun, the Commissioner of Animal Health, to impose an FMD quarantine in Kampala.
Dr Ademun had in a March 1 letter to KCCA, ordered city authorities to enforce quarantine, saying there was an FMD outbreak in Kabowa, Lubaga Division, Kampala District, as reported on  February 28.
More than 30 districts in cattle corridor districts are still under quarantine over the same disease, but the Minister for Kampala City and Metropolitan Affairs, Ms Minsa Kabanda, said four days ago the ban on selling meat in Kampala would not be implemented.

“When we saw the letter we went to the Prime Minister for guidance, she rang the person who had issued the statement and told her to withdraw it until further notice,” Ms Kabanda told this newspaper.
She also said, “People should continue eating meat but we encourage the meat packers to ensure that the animals are tested before being slaughtered.”
Yesterday, this publication reported that the Cabinet reportedly questioned the commissioner for issuing the quarantine orders without consulting other concerned government ministries. But Dr Kasibule said earlier that the commissioner just executed what she is supposed to as provided for in the law.

““There is nothing good that is got easily. Whenever there is a problem there is some hardship that must be passed. That is why during quarantine [for Covid], we had to be restrained and we could go out to check on our people. We have other alternatives to meat. We have fish, we have chicken [that people can eat],” he added.
Lt Col (Rtd) Dr Bright Rwamirama, the State minister for Animal Industry, said in a March 11 letter to Minister of Kampala that trade in animals and their products in Kampala continue because the reported case of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) has been managed. 
“The technical team has since established that the disease is localized, the sick herd has been treated and put under strict surveillance,” he said. 

What law says
Section 11 of the Animal Disease Act, details the power to restrict slaughter animals. “The commissioner of livestock and entomology may, for the purpose of preventing the spread of disease, prohibit in any place the slaughter of cattle for food and the sale of meat or carcasses or of any part of the meat or carcasses,” the provision in the Act reads. Section 5 of the Act also gives insights into how the commissioner imposes such restrictions.