Governor Mike Sonko reveals plans are underway to open dog meat market in Nairobi

Sonko reveals plans to open market for selling dog meat

Mumbi Mutuko

June 26, 2019 9:15 AM

Study shows dog meat delicacy is believed to be a medicinal food

Sonko reveals plans to open dog meat market

Governor Mike Sonko shocked Kenyans after revealing that a dog meat market will be opened in Nairobi.

In a post on his Facebook account, the governor said that stray dogs in Nairobi will be slaughtered and sold at the market.

The Nairobi County governor said that the market will bring together people of other nationalities who eat dog meat as a delicacy.

"We are in the process of identifying a market for stray dogs in Nairobi," Sonko announced.

Governor Mike Sonko (Governor's press) Pulse Live Kenya

Open Market for selling dog meat

"We shall be recruiting and bringing together all the dog eating nationalities and open for them a koroga club where they'll be buying slaughtered stray dogs ready for cooking or eating," he added.

Sonko posted a video of a market where roasted dogs meat was being sold.

The governor's plan seems to have come after an animal welfare lobby opposed plans by the county to kill more than 50,000 stray dogs in the city.

The group had argued that the funds that the Ksh100 million City Hall had allocated for culling the canines could be used for vaccination and sterilisation instead.

Booming business in China

According to the lobby group, killing the dogs is not a solution to their increasing population, citing studies have shown that when the animals are killed in one area, a new pack will move in to occupy the available territory.

Stray dogs Pulse Live Kenya

In China, the dog meat market is said to be a booming business especially during the dog-eating festival which takes place in Yulin, a city in the southern Chinese province.

Majority of the population in China sees the dog meat delicacy as a medicinal food, which is believed to warm the body in winter or cool it in summer, according to a study.

Mumbi Mutuko