Africa Veterinary Technicians Association (AVTA) has cautioned meat consumers to be more vigilant about the quality of the product on their plate, warning of unscrupulous traders taking advantage of the high demand during this festive season.
The association said its investigations has found a lot of uninspected meat finding its way to butcheries and eateries, endangering the health of unsuspecting consumers.
"Meat consumers have a duty to ensure they buy meat from well established outlets and stop purchasing hawked meat. The hawked meat might be relatively cheap but why? Where is the source? The cheap meat maybe the source of a chronic disease in future," said AVTA president, Benson Oduor Omeda.
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The veterinary official said that lack of a proper meat management structure is the main challenge in ensuring safe meat in the country.
With abattoirs remaining private, meat ferrying unregulated and meat inspectors being devolved, meat safety is easily compromised, he said.
"Meat safety starts by having a well-equipped slaughterhouse and a qualified inspector. Unfortunately, meat can also be compromised during its ferrying since the business is unregulated. Some of the branded meat ferrying vehicles and motorbikes can be used to ferry wild meat or uninspected meat since security apparatus in roadblocks cannot ascertain the meat safety," said Omenda.
The official praised President Uhuru Kenyatta's move to place Kenya Meat Commission under the management of Kenya Defense Forces, saying the decision will safeguard the country from unsafe meat.
Since the KMC takeover by KDF, Omeda said Kajiado livestock farmers who had been owed over Sh400 million over the last five years had since been paid.
Kajiado towns, including Kiserian, Ilbisil, Kitengela and Isinya are renowned for their tasty meat, attracting many consumers from the capital city and beyond.
The association said there is also need of having a common livestock permit, faulting the current system in which every county issues its own permits.
"A slaughterhouse is a very critical organ of every country. It is part of the country security and a management point of livestock health. If livestock inspectors identified an ailing animal its origin should be traced to notify farmers of an existing disease. That therefore means that incase the origin permit was false, the animals might have been stolen, "said Omenda.
