BARBARA BUSH FOOD POISONING CASE IN KIBUYE MAY END MANAGERS IN COURT
A case of severe food poising at the church operated hotel in Kibuye / Rwanda on the shores of Lake Kivu has ended over 20 guests participating in a workshop in hospital. Barbara Bush, daughter of former US President George W. Bush, was among those affected. Several of the more severe cases were transferred from the Kibuye Hospital to the King Faisal Hospital in the capital Kigali to aid a full recover.
Authorities have reacted by throwing the book at the hotel, which together with the responsible managers may now face criminal charges. Fines of up to 500.000 Rwanda Francs and prison terms of up to five years in severe cases could be dished out, as the industry watchdogs are reacting to the incident, ready to crank up inspections carried out in hotels and restaurants by local and national health authorities and the RDB inspectorate. A criminal investigation is according to a source underway now, that all victims have been discharged and returned home. The hotel was immediately closed down but has reportedly since been allowed to resume operations after a thorough inspection and cleanup of its kitchen and food storage facilities and after checking out the staff dealing with food for any pending illnesses.
Barbara Bush is the CEO of the Global Health Corps which had for the fourth time running held its annual media retreat at the location.
One Response
I think this is an eye opener as regards the harmonization of the East Africa Hospitality standard. Over years a number of conferences where held to prepare hotels and lodges for standardization and service rating in Arusha, Kampala and Kigali but up to now nothing has been done as far as hotel standard is concerned.
Without such standard it is very difficult to enforce the Hazard Analysis and critical Control Point (HACCP) policy leaving it to individual hotel to set their standards that may not confirm to regional or International standard.
Charging the manager may help as a short term measure but the Government should look a long lasting solution by setting standards that can not be compromised by the hotel owners and practitioners in their quest for profits.
As a practitioner, i think it is long over due for the implementation of a joint East African Hotel Standardization policy.