• The chickens are bought dead and rotten already from a few farms somewhere around Lusaka.
• Traders are selling chickens that are bad and have turned green.
• It is not conducive and healthy for members of the public to consume chickens whose cause of death is unknown.

Lusaka City Council (LCC) has picked up some traders at Soweto Market to help with investigations into the selling of dead chickens to the community.
Council Public Relations Manager Mwaka Nakweti said this follows a fact finding mission undertaken by Lusaka Mayor Chilando Chitangala in the company of members of the Public Health Committee and a team of health inspectors to locate traders who sell chickens popularly called mortality chickens suspected to be rotten.
And Ms. Chitangala disclosed that the operation was necessitated after it was brought to the Council’s attention that some farms have been selling the mortality chickens suspected to have died due to unknown reasons to traders who in turn resale the birds at a cheaper price.
“On Saturday we got information that our people were selling were selling chicken that was already rotten but we were also told that these chickens are bought dead and rotten already from a few farms somewhere around Lusaka,” Ms. Chilando said.
She added that the team was later led on a fact finding mission to various farms that are suspected to be selling the mortality chickens and some farm owners have also been picked up for further investigations.
Ms. Chitangala stated that it is not conducive and healthy for members of the public to consume chickens whose cause of death is unknown.
“This is very disappointing for Lusaka City Council but it is our duty to make sure that people eat and sale food that is in good condition.”
“So here where we are all the women are selling chickens that are bad, they have even turned green so imagine they would take them to restaurants and cook meals for people. The farm owners sale one chicken at K10 because it is already dead and it has already gone bad,” she stated.
She said the local authority has since engaged Chilanga Town Council and will work closely with the Local Authority to bring this matter to a halt.
The sale of food that is unfit for human consumption goes against the food safety Act Number 7 of 2019.