{"id":130,"date":"2011-05-06T14:46:24","date_gmt":"2011-05-06T14:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/when-seeds-of-peace-turned-sour-in-gahini\/"},"modified":"2011-05-07T19:37:51","modified_gmt":"2011-05-07T19:37:51","slug":"when-seeds-of-peace-turned-sour-in-gahini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/when-seeds-of-peace-turned-sour-in-gahini\/","title":{"rendered":"When seeds of peace turned sour in Gahini"},"content":{"rendered":"

 It was Wednesday, 27 April 2011, and the day began like any other. Characteristically, people went about their routine daily exertions at one of Bishop Alex Birindabagabo\u2019s<\/span> farms in Ryamanyoni<\/span> Cell, Murundi<\/span> Sector, 4kms<\/span> away from Gahini<\/span>, Kayonza<\/span> District, Apophia<\/span> Mukampabuka<\/span>, who coordinates milk supplies at a restaurant oddly named Seeds of Peace, received the morning\u2019s supply of fresh milk from the Bishop\u2019s farm.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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 \u201cI received boiled milk as usual and before I stored it, I drunk a cupful ; but the following day, I lost consciousness and I was admitted to the hospital,\u201d recalls Mukampabuka<\/span>, from her hospital bed at Gahini<\/span> Hospital. Mukampabuka<\/span>, who has since been under treatment at Gahini<\/span> Hospital for a week, says she developed symptoms of fever, severe headache, vomiting and diarrhoea<\/span> immediately after she took the milk.<\/p>\n

 In a period of less than 24 hours after partaking the milk, over 15 other workers at the Seedss<\/span> of Peace Restaurant had been admitted to Gahini<\/span> Hospital. Two days later, on Monday 2 May, 2011, Gahini<\/span> Secondary School students, their head teacher, school bursar and others who took the milk fell victim to the ill-fated milk.<\/p>\n

 At least 30 people had been admitted at Gahini<\/span> Hospital and King Faycal<\/span> Hospital in Kigali after drinking suspected poisoned milk from Gahini<\/span> High School and \u2018Seeds of Peace\u2019.<\/p>\n

Gahini<\/span> Diocese which supplies the Gahini<\/span> school canteen doubles as the owner of \u2018Seedss<\/span> of Peace\u2019 restaurant located on the shores of idyllic Lake Muhazi<\/span>.<\/p>\n

On the fateful day, Flavia<\/span> Kabenga<\/span>, the owner of one of the school canteens sent a worker at the Seedss<\/span> of Peace restaurant to fetch cultured buttermilk, to ferment the day\u2019s supply of fresh milk.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sent a person to get for me two spoons of cultured buttermilk which I used to ferment 10 litres<\/span> of fresh milk that I had brought from Kiramuruzi<\/span> on Thursday. Then on Friday, they (students and teachers) took the fermented sour milk and on Saturday, they started falling sick,\u201d Kabenga<\/span> recalls.<\/p>\n

Apophia<\/span> Mukampabuka<\/span> who fetched the fermented milk to Kabenga<\/span> also concurs that the milk may have been the source of the food poisoning.<\/p>\n

The manager at the Bishop\u2019s farm, Innocent Karagire<\/span> says that after milking in the wee hours of last Wednesday, he apportioned some milk for consumption by his family of five, and sent the rest for delivery to the Seeds of Peace Restaurant. According to Karagire<\/span>, a worker only know as Joseph, made a stopover on the way at Karubamba<\/span> market to buy a bottle of juice and left the bicycle ferrying the milk with a friend.<\/p>\n

 Joseph later delivered the 19 litres<\/span> of fresh milk to Mukampabuka<\/span>, who in turn asked Ntaganzwa<\/span> to boil it.<\/p>\n

 <\/strong>As a ritual, the elderly Ntaganzwa<\/span> who lives within the restaurant and doubles as a security guard at the Bishop\u2019s house reserved two litres<\/span> of milk for himself after boiling it. \u201cI set aside one litre<\/span> (of the milk) and drunk it but I never fell sick,\u201d Ntaganzwa<\/span> says.<\/p>\n

 How Ntaganzwa<\/span> never fell sick remains a mystery to many of his co-workers. They also pointed an accusing finger at Joseph. <\/p>\n

 A majority of patients have since convalesced and been discharged from the hospital.<\/p>\n

 Dr. Alfonse<\/span> Muvunyi<\/span>, the Director of Gahini<\/span> Hospital told IGIHE.com<\/span> the cause of the food poisoning is yet to be determined but samples are already at the laboratory with the results due soon.<\/p>\n

 Denise Uwera<\/span> Rudasingwa<\/span>, the Head of the Health Department at Kayonza<\/span> District says that irresponsible handling of milk could have caused the poisoning adding that distributing and selling toxic milk to the public was extremely unacceptable.<\/p>\n

 \u201cDirty containers exposed to house flies could cause the illness we saw…it<\/span> is unfortunate and some people could face the law for their irresponsible behaviour<\/span>,\u201d she declares.<\/p>\n

 She observes that the kitchen at the restaurant was rather grimy adding that since the local hospital was ill-equipped to determine the cause of the poisoning, samples were sent to the National Laboratory.<\/p>\n

 Police spokesperson Theos<\/span> Badege<\/span> says that the inspection team from the district and the police in the area decided to close the Seeds of Peace restaurant to carry out further investigations.<\/p>\n

 Luckily for the victims of Gahini<\/span>, they at least walked away with their lives. Food borne illness usually arises from improper handling, preparation, or food storage. Good hygiene practices before, during, and after food preparation can reduce the chances of contracting an illness. There is a consensus in the public health community that regular hand-washing is one of the most effective defenses against the spread of food borne illness.<\/p>\n

 In Rwanda\u2019s food culture, milk is considered a \u201cstaple\u201d amongst both adults and children. Across the country, the importance of cattle and thereby milk in the Rwandan society is demonstrated in the proverb ushaka<\/span> inka<\/span> arara<\/span> nkazo<\/span> <\/em>(He who seeks to obtain cattle is made to sleep outdoors like them). The consumption of milk and dairy products (mainly from cattle) is important to their health. The production of milk and butter is usually carried out by a process of fermentation with the use of traditional technology. But there should be mechanisms to ensure that this is carried out in a hygienic manner. Otherwise, the Gahini<\/span> case would not be the last we hear of. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 It was Wednesday, 27 April 2011, and the day began like any other. Characteristically, people went about their routine daily exertions at one of Bishop Alex Birindabagabo\u2019s farms in Ryamanyoni Cell, Murundi Sector, 4kms away from Gahini, Kayonza District, Apophia Mukampabuka, who coordinates milk supplies at a restaurant oddly named Seeds of Peace, received the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[278],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-joram-muhoozi"],"bylines":[{"id":278,"name":"Joram Muhoozi","slug":"joram-muhoozi","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":278,"name":"Joram Muhoozi","slug":"joram-muhoozi","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=130"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}