Nairobi — The chances of the sizzling, mouth-watering meat served Nairobi's residents being from wild game are as high as 30 per cent, a report revealed yesterday.

And the experts who carried out the survey say they do not know from what animals the meats used in their sample were extracted.

The survey conducted by a youth lobby, Youth For Conservation (YFC,) and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) showed that Nairobians unknowingly buy bush meat from butcheries across the city.

"Unsuspecting Nairobi residents are buying bush meat from butcheries thinking it is either beef or goat meat," YFC Director Josphat Ngonyo said.

According to the report, 25 per cent of the meat being sold in the butcheries is bush meat while 19 per cent is domestic meat mixed with bush meat.

It further says that only 42 per cent of the meat is domestic meat while 13 per cent could not be identified.

The shocking report was developed and funded by the globally renowned Born Free Foundation of the United Kingdom.

The survey was conducted over a period of one month in three zones of the city - the shopping centres, informal settlements, and the Central Business District (CBD).

It sought to establish whether bush meat is sold in Nairobi and randomly selected 202 butcheries from the three zones.

Samples presented by the butchers as either beef or mutton were purchased and packed separately in polythene bags and labeled.

All samples were then taken to KWS veterinary laboratory on the day of collection to be analysed and identified. The next stage is to analyse and identify the specific game animals whose meat the butchers were selling.

Of the areas sampled, the shopping centres had the highest occurrence of bush meat with 30 per cent followed closely by the informal settlements at 23 per cent then NCBD at 13 per cent.

The shopping centres had 18 per cent of mixed domestic and bush meat while the informal settlements and the NCBD had 14 and 7 per cent respectively.

Some of the areas of the shopping centres where the survey was conducted included Westlands, Nairobi West, South B, South C, Ngara, Burma and Gikomba.

The informal settlements included Kibera, Kawangware, Mathare and Kangemi while the NCBD areas included River Road, Railways and the City Market.

The report recommends that similar studies be carried out in other major urban centers to enable the government to articulate an effective national campaign against trade in wild game.

It also says that the Attorney General should offer advice to the courts as to the severity of the penalties that would stop commercial poaching.

The report says it is vital to educate Kenyans on the impacts of bush meat trade and its effects on people's health and the wildlife.

Addressing a news conference, Ngonyo appealed to the Government to crack down on the trade to save the tourism industry from collapse and to ensure Kenyans lived a healthy life.

He said chances of disease transmission from the animals to humans were very high because no doctors conducted tests to verify if the meat was safe.

"We don't want our people to get anthrax. An outbreak of the disease will also be a big blow to the tourism industry," he said.

He called on the government to act immediately as it could not afford another blow to the tourism industry.

Ngonyo also asked farmers with ranches to help the government stop illegal hunting by fencing off their land and guarding it against poachers.

He said his lobby would next move to identify the specific animals from which the meats are extracted in order to determine the areas from which the animals were poached.