A lawmaker in the Democratic Republic of Congo has proposed a law that will jail anyone found killing and eating dog meat.
Dog meat is a delicacy among Congolese in the Kasai in the central province of the country. However, the practice is frowned upon by the rest of the country.
The law, according to observers, is seen as a malicious attempt to fight the Tshiani Law which seeks to eliminate a Katangese from contesting the December 20, 2023 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Boris Mbuku has proposed a sentence of between 10 to 20 years in prison for those who will be caught publicly eating dog meat.
If this proposal were to pass in Parliament, which is unlikely, security forces will face fierce resistance from consumers who rank these meats among the most delicious in the world.
Observers say the proposal is the ripple effect of a racist and discriminatory law introduce by Noel Tshiani, a Kasai, and President Felix Tshisekedi’s tribesman seen to be supported by the ruling party.
“People in Katanga don’t eat dog meat and they see it as a kasai thing so they are using this proposal to fight back. This is what happens when a government entertains proposals like Congolite which has brough divisions in the politics of our country,” an official close to the lawmaker has said.
Both the Tshiani and Dog Meat Bill are bound to fail as they may be seen to fuel chaos.
