Butcher arrested with 43 stolen animals
A dead cow. A butcher was arrested in Laikipia for selling uninspected meat.
Police in Laikipia County have arrested a butcher after 43 stolen sheep and two goats were recovered at his homestead at Ruai village.
Police believe a racket involving theft of livestock, slaughter and sale of uninspected meat to butchers within Nanyuki town has been going on for a while.
The arrested man is suspected of stocking the meat in his butchery cum eatery, and selling the surplus to other butchers in Nanyuki.
Laikipia East Sub-County Police Commander John Tarus told the Nation that two of the animals had been slaughtered by the time the law enforcers arrived at the scene and the meat ferried to an unknown place.
Mr Tarus said community policing members from Ruai village teamed up with police officers in following the footprints of the stolen animals that led them to the home of the suspect.
It is not clear how the suspect has been evading detection by veterinary officers and public health officials charged with ensuring that all meat sold in butcheries is inspected.
Consumption of uninspected meat exposes humans to zoonotic diseases such anthrax, bovine tuberculosis and Rift Valley Fever.
Police have now widened their investigation to establish if other butchers in the town could be part of a racket of theft and sale of an uninspected meat.
Mr Tarus disclosed that the total number of animals reported stolen from the homesteads of Mr Samuel Kuya and Ms Regina Kaprina were 62, with fears that the rest of the animals might have been slaughtered and sold to meat traders.
The police boss added that a vehicle (make Probox) and a motorcycle found at the crime scene were impounded and towed to Ruai Police Station.
“We suspect the vehicle and the motorcycle are used to ferry the meat to various destinations once the animals are slaughtered,” said Mr Tarus.
