Meat sellers in Ol Kalou town, Nyandarua, on Wednesday protested against the prolonged closure of the public slaughterhouse by Nema.
They said they have been incurring high costs for using a private abattoir located about 4km from the town.
Butchers chairman James Ng’ang’a said since the facility was closed in July they have been exploited by the private facility. He said they pay more than double the previous price to get meat to their butcheries.
The price for slaughtering a sheep or goat and getting the meat to a butchery was Sh240 in the government facility. But the cost shoots up to Sh600 at the private slaughterhouse.
Slaughtering a cow and transporting the meat to a butchery cost Sh580 in the public abattoir but Sh1, 500 at the private slaughterhouse.
“From our evaluation, we have cumulatively lost over sh4 million in the last five months. We have suffered enough," Ng’ang’a said.
He said it would have been better if all that money went into government coffers as residents would get services, but now it goes into an individual’s pockets.
Wednesday was the second time the butchers downed their tools to protest the closure. In July when the facility was closed, the more than 200 meat sellers protested saying they were singled out yet there was no sewerage system in Ol Kalou. Everyone including hospitals dispose their waste into streams, they said.
The slaughterhouse was closed for releasing waste into the nearby Kiogoro stream. Nema also directed that the abattoir’s floor be repaired, the roof be raised to precvent slaughtered animals from touching the floor and that the facility be painted.
Peter Thinji said all these demands have been met but the butchers continue to suffer for a fault not of their own making.
“We urge Nema to open this abattoir for us to stop incurring these unnecessary loses," he said.
The Nyandarua assembly committee on Agriculture visited the facility accompanied by executive for lands, Lawrence Mukundi and Ol Kalou municipal chairman Mwangi Nyaga and addressed the troubled meat traders.
The assembly committee chairman Kamau Kariuki said there was no justifiable reason for the facility to stay closed while the butchers took it upon themselves to meet the Nema directive.
“As a county, we have fulfilled all the requirements to ensure clean meat for the people of Ol Kalou town even as we take care of the environment," he said.
On Wednesday, Nyandarua Nema director of environment Ezra Ng’ang’a visited the abattoir and assured the butchers that a technical team will visit the scene to verify compliance before they are allowed to operate from the facility.