The Ministry of Health has on several occasions urged restaurants in Kigali city to maintain cleanliness, lest they face closure. And therefore, it should be common knowledge to every restaurant manager to maintain proper hygiene and sanitation.

However, recently I had a rather nasty experience when I went to have lunch in one of the restaurants in Nyamirambo. I entered and sat at a table only to realise minutes later that I was actually seated next to a pit latrine with a horrible stench. As if that as not enough, the wash place also emitted a smell of fermented food. This lack of personal hygiene is the very reason amoeba is a very common sickness in Rwanda. I still don’t understand what happens when the line ministry carries out inspections of hygiene standards in such restaurants.

How do such filth settings go unnoticed? What criteria does the ministry use in closing or approving restaurants to do business? I suggest that the ministry of health creates tough measures of ensuring that people’s health is not put at risk by these dirty restaurants whose only concern is to r their money making interests.

Remera