How safe is the meat we eat?

Meat roasters at the Najjembe roadside market in Buikwe District have denied roasting any other meat other than goat and beef. Photo by Herbert Mugagga

What you need to know:

Other meats sold include pork, chicken and fish.

Rashid Kilama has been selling roasted meat at a roadside market at Kafu along the Gulu-Kampala highway for the last seven years. On average, the father of three takes home Shs100,000 every day. Kilama, who is among the 60 vendors selling roasted meat at Kafu, says he has educated his children and provided for his family needs.

Every day, he sells about 100 meat skewers to passengers who make a stopover at Kafu. Each skewer costs Shs1,000.
Other meats sold include pork, chicken and fish.
Or atleast that is what passengers travelling from Uganda’s capital Kampala to various upcountry destinations thought they were eating.
Last week, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) warned travellers who like buying roasted meat along highways to be cautious of what they are eating. According, Dr Andrew Seguya, UWA executive director, they have arrested and prosecuted people selling Baboon meat in Kafu claiming that it is Antelope or other game meat to unsuspecting travellers.

“People must be careful with what they eat on the way. These people slaughter baboons and calves which they smear with blood to make the meat appear dark like game meat,” Seguya said then.
The news that baboons, one of Uganda’s tourism attractions on the Northern circuit, are hunted down and turned into a delicacy, cast a doubt on the kind and quality of meat you might be purchasing and consuming. Indeed, the public is suspicious of the meat sold at Namawojjolo, after Mukono, Najjembe in Mabira Forest and Lukaaya, or Mbizi Nya in Masaka.
For example Abiaz Rwamwiri, a tour operator and director of Africa Wild, says he used to love goat’s meat until he was sold mutton.

“Do you know that we even eat dogs?” he asks.
Just last month, two men were held by police in Mpigi while trying to smuggle dog meat into an unknown butchery.
Just like Rwamwiri, whose craving for meat has since gone down, Hajji Ashraf Simwogerere, an actor has vowed never to eat roadside meat again after partaking what he now suspects to have been adulterated meat.
“I ate some meat on Masaka road and developed a very bad running stomach. Then I watched an incident on television where some guy was preparing two dogs for roasting. I have since made up my mind to only consume plantain and water while travelling,” he explains.

Difference
Sheep (or lamb) is a popular and versatile meat that can be used in a variety of dishes. It is particularly well suited to Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dishes.
Beef: In general beef should be bright red with firm white fat and light marbling. Beef from some cattle varieties, older animals, and dairy cattle may have yellower and have softer fat.
Pork is valued as a lean, pale-pink meat with a distinct and delicate flavour. Pork, unlike lamb and beef is often sold skin-on, as the skin is nutritious and also valued for its flavour and texture.
Goat: All goat meat is very lean and requires some care in cooking so that it doesn’t dry out. Goat is very flavoursome meat.

Risk of zootonic diseases
The dangers of eating baboon and dog meat are many. However, according to Dr. William Lubega, a specialist in infectious diseases, eating of game meat is a public health risk. He explains that despite preparing game meat by boiling, smoking, frying and salting the meat continues to harbour infectious pathogens.
“There are a number of zoonotic diseases. However, the most common are those caused by viral agents of Ebola, Herpes B, Rift Valley fever, Monkey pox and rabies, bacterial agents of Bovine Tuberculosis, Anthrax, Salmonellosis, Shigellosis, Brucellosis; and parasitic agents of Toxoplasmosis. These diseases can easily spread among humans resulting in high death rates,” Dr Lubega adds.
Zoonotic diseases are those that may be transmitted to humans from game meat, Innocent Nahabwe, a veterinary doctor says.


Many zoonotic diseases can easily be transmitted to humans during slaughter and consumption of the game meat.
“It is worse for animals close to us in evolution such as Chimps and baboons. Humans beings also risk contacting include tuberculosis (TB) and measles.

Malicious propaganda?

Kibangya-Kafu LC1 chairman, Vincent Mugisha, says the talk of baboon meat is malicious propaganda.
“If they (vendors) were buying meat from elsewhere, we would doubt their products but everything is done here [at Kafu], in a transparent manner. Nothing is hidden,” he says.
According to Mugisha, vendors roast the meat from the goats and cattle bought from Kijujumbwa market in Masindi, Nakitoma market in Nakasongola and Masindi Port in Kiryandongo District and ranches that are within the area.

The animals are slaughtered on a slab; the meat is cut into pieces, put on sticks and roasted on a charcoal stove.
Kimengo Sub-county health assistant, Philliam Bakole, explains the Kafu Junction Daily market deals in domestic animals and the crops people grow. The market was established in 1969.
Masindi health department checks the hygiene and sanitation of the place. The vendors are medically checked and they receive certificate of fitness at least after every six months, according to Mr Bakole.

A veterinary officer is also on hand to see that animals slaughtered at Kafu are of good health while the LC1 chairman sees to it that the ones slaughtered are not stolen ones.
At the Najjembe roadside market in Buikwe District, the chairman Muzamiru Kezimbira, said there is constant surveillance to ensure that what is being roasted or sold at the market is not adulterated.
‘’We slaughter our own birds and animals and before preparing the meat, it is checked and satified by a veterinary doctor who is attached to this market’’, said Kezimbira.
A few years back, there were rumors of dog’s meat being sold in such markets which we checked and found it baseless.”

Effect of news
Juliet Kobusinge, a vendor who has been selling muchomo at Kafu since 2014 says: “The news has affected us a lot. These days, travelers tell us, ‘you take away your Baboon’”.
A skewer costs Shs1,000.
Mohammed Nsubuga who has tendered the Kafu Junction Daily market says vendors have since refused to pay revenue.
“I used to collect Shs100,000 daily but now I’m collecting only Shs10,000 because customers are not buying things,” he says.
Mr Nsubuga pays Shs975,000 monthly to Kimengo Sub-county.

Additional reporting by H. Mugagga.