Kenyan man jailed for selling cat meat for samosas
He told clients he got the meat from a dump site but did not say it came from felines
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Your support makes all the difference.A Kenyan man who sold cat meat to be made into samosas by unsuspecting food vendors for more than six years has been jailed.
James Kimani admitted slaughtering more than 1,000 cats and selling the meat to street food traders and hotels in Nakuru, Kenya’s fourth largest city, after identifying “a gap in the market”.
Kimani was arrested by police on Sunday after they reportedly saved him from being lynched by an angry mob, who caught him skinning a feline earlier in the day near the city’s Provincial General Hospital.
The 34-year-old pleaded guilty to slaughtering cats for human consumption and was jailed for three years by magistrates on Monday.
“I began this business in 2012 after I saw there was need for the meat by samosa sellers,” Kimani told journalists upon his arrest. “I tell my clients that I get the meat from Gioto [a dump site] but they do not know it is cat meat.”
Nakuru resident Maina Saitoti said passersby had seen the “odd-looking” Kimani skinning a cat on the street and began to attack him before police stepped in.
“This means most of the food being sold in Nakuru town is not fit for human consumption,” Mr Saitoti told Nairobi News. “The man says he has a ready market and has slaughtered hundreds of cats. This is unbelievable and frightening.”
Kimani claimed he had made more than half a million Kenyan shillings (£3,700) through trading illegal meat and earned an extra 500 shillings (£3.75) selling the skin of each cat he slaughtered.
During his court appearance, he argued he was unaware selling cat meat was a criminal offence, claiming he had been offered money by someone else to carry out the killings.
“Consumers are grieving at the moment,” public health prosecutor Margret Mogaka told the court, according to The Standard. “They are still traumatised after they found out that they have been consuming samosas packed with cat meat without their consent.”
Magistrates also ordered Kimani to pay a fine of 250,000 shillings.
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