Narok County Commissioner Kipkech Lotiatia has cautioned area residents against buying uninspected meat in a bid to prevent illegal slaughter of animals.
Speaking during a community Epidemic and Pandemic preparedness programme (CP3) stakeholders workshop convened by Kenya Red cross in Narok at Zebu Lodge, the CC said that the workshop is aimed at raising awareness to prevent zoonotic diseases following a spike in cases of illegal slaughtering of animals.
The CC added that Narok south and Narok west Sub counties are prone to illegal slaughtering of animals and handling of animals which might spread the zoonotic diseases.
“In the past two weeks, we have two people who lost their lives, they had eaten the carcass of dead cow, which was infected of anthrax,” added Lotiatia.
The CC warned area residents against eating the uninspected meat and said that all animal slaughtering should be done at the slaughterhouses and meat should be inspected by the public health officers.
The CC called on the area residents to work together with the security teams in all the sub counties to identify those hot spots of the illegal activities.
On his part, Edward Tangoi, County Public Health officer said that the mandate of the public health and veterinary is to ensure that people eat safe food.
Tangoi also said that there are many diseases such as anthrax that might have spilled off from animals to human beings and the members of the public should be cautious of such diseases.
He added that there were few individuals that add chemicals to milk either to make them thick or away from preservation of which they are harmful for human consumption.
Celestine Ogutu, officer from Kenya Red Cross Narok County, during her presentation, said that the CP3 programme has scaled up to Transmara East and West in Kilgoris Sub County.
By John Kaleke
