Overdue Decision, KCC
May 16, 2003
KAMPALA City Council has set up a unit to curb the menace of livestock to the general public.
KAMPALA City Council has set up a unit to curb the menace of livestock to the general public.
Enforcement personnel have been empowered to impound goats and cows that roam in the city. The animals will be sold to abattoirs to recover operational costs.
Hitherto, KCC has been fining the owners of destructive stray animals, but this has proved to be ineffectual. In any case, an animal walking around and chomping away on its own would not be controlled in the absence of a human being tending it.
The history of the menace lies partly in our cultural background, as many of our communities tend domestic animals in the open - with no paddocks or fencing. That is okay in the countryside, where families tend to have vast tracts of land, limiting the inconvenience to others. The general breakdown of social order that began in the 1970s has also contributed. Many families shifting from rural settings to city apartments bring their livestock with them. The difficulty of raising livestock in housing estates inevitably leads to the streets outside.
The animals are a nuisance. They litter the streets with their dung; they irritate pedestrians and motorists alike as they disrupt traffic. They are an environmental mess as they eat away at plants like new seedlings and hedges, and scatter garbage as they scour rubbish dumps. Uncontrolled, they can spread disease.
The decision to impound them is therefore a good one, though long overdue. The by-laws governing the city actually proscribe the raising of livestock in the open. So KCC is only belatedly enforcing its own laws. But the move is nevertheless welcome. It will hopefully be enforced without fear or favour as we continue to build Kampala into the modern metropolis we all want it to be.
Ends
Enforcement personnel have been empowered to impound goats and cows that roam in the city. The animals will be sold to abattoirs to recover operational costs.
Hitherto, KCC has been fining the owners of destructive stray animals, but this has proved to be ineffectual. In any case, an animal walking around and chomping away on its own would not be controlled in the absence of a human being tending it.
The history of the menace lies partly in our cultural background, as many of our communities tend domestic animals in the open - with no paddocks or fencing. That is okay in the countryside, where families tend to have vast tracts of land, limiting the inconvenience to others. The general breakdown of social order that began in the 1970s has also contributed. Many families shifting from rural settings to city apartments bring their livestock with them. The difficulty of raising livestock in housing estates inevitably leads to the streets outside.
The animals are a nuisance. They litter the streets with their dung; they irritate pedestrians and motorists alike as they disrupt traffic. They are an environmental mess as they eat away at plants like new seedlings and hedges, and scatter garbage as they scour rubbish dumps. Uncontrolled, they can spread disease.
The decision to impound them is therefore a good one, though long overdue. The by-laws governing the city actually proscribe the raising of livestock in the open. So KCC is only belatedly enforcing its own laws. But the move is nevertheless welcome. It will hopefully be enforced without fear or favour as we continue to build Kampala into the modern metropolis we all want it to be.
Ends