Foot-and-mouth standoff must prompt key changes

The blame game that Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (Maaif) appear to be playing over the spread of the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is regrettably bad. This comes in the wake of Maaif’s March 1 letter to KCCA in which curbs were brought in on red meat markets in the Uganda capital of Kampala.

The restrictions follow an outbreak of FMD in the capital’s division of Rubaga at the backend of February. A ping-pong has since ensued with KCCA stopping short of saying that Maaif’s decision to impose a quarantine was not steeped in data and science.

This, if proven to be true, is certainly an outrage that deserves to be condemned. If Maaif does not carry out scientifically based risk assessments as the latest episode seems to suggest, then it is vitally important that we collectively come to the conclusion that something of the gravest nature has occurred. And quite possibly has been doing so for a protracted period.

Just as bad, if not worse, is the possibility that we are looking at a classic case of a breakdown in communication. The aforesaid failure is playing out within the needless layer of a bureaucracy. It is as unpleasant as it is unacceptable that two ministries—of Kampala and Agriculture—have been on their own trajectory of understanding.

Conventional wisdom suggests that the two government entities, together with the media, should be on the same wavelength. This is especially so when faced with the outbreak of a disease that could force animal slaughters, cripple livestock industries, and cost the country much-needed forex for good measure.

With the country’s forex reserves dwindling, this is a definite no-no. The country should strive to control a narrative quantifiable in millions of dollars. One of the ways that it can be ahead of the curve is by the different layers of its bureaucracy communicating better.

This cannot be stressed enough not least because an outbreak in the country’s populous city has the potential to halt export markets. This will not only negatively impact the central bank’s forex reserves. It could also quite possibly increase supply of red meat and milk on the domestic market, with the net effect being a downward revision of prices.

While this is sure to be music to the ears of Ugandan households that love their red meat to pieces (pun intended), the wind will undoubtedly be taken out of the sails of a red meat industry. It should not be lost upon us that the aforesaid industry employs a sizeable number of Ugandans.

Most importantly, we hope that the latest development is a wakeup call to all affected players. We should all be aware of the responsibilities about biosecurity in the red meat industry. We should also communicate better. Proverbially speaking, the left hand has to know what the right hand is doing. Short of that, we will not be able to take the metaphorical foot out of the mouth.

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