visit to a modest restaurant recently with a business associate left us with a bitter taste in our mouths when we both woke up the next day to cramping stomach pains, nausea and diarrhoea. A quick consultation with people more knowledgeable about diseases and symptoms left us with no doubt that we had had a bout of food poisoning. The restaurant we had eaten at had all the signs of a model modern restaurant with the usual welcoming décor, attentive waiters and great tasting food.

However, on further reflection on our experience, we realised that we

should have paid a little more attention to glaring details. For one, the chef looked more like a mechanic rather than a cook and his apron appeared to have changed colour due to infrequent washing. The chefs assistants who appeared busy and skilled enough did not wear gloves or head gear. The waiter who escorted us to our reserved table and shook the hand of every customer who walked in was also the one who served the food to some guests.

On further observation and benefit of hindsight, we realised that this is standard operating procedure in many Nairobi restaurants ­ cooks who look like vehicle mechanics, kitchen hands who do not wear head gear or gloves, waiters who rarely wash their hands or cut short finger nails; and jugs topped with free water that is suspect. Restaurant patrons are faced with potential hazards and consequences of eating food that is not properly cooked, properly processed or properly refrigerated.

It is quite interesting to note that despite all the regulations and restrictions placed on restaurant entrepreneurs, we have food joints springing up in every street corner with the most appalling conditions to behold. As is customary of Kenyan entrepreneurs, high profit margins and low costs is the name of the game. Cutting corners is the smartest thing to do, even at the risk of compromising customers’ well being and

safety. Primary school biology taught us that there are thousands of bacteria in our environment and a large segment of food pathogens lead to food borne diseases. The next time you visit a doctor with symptoms of a cold such as a fever, it may very well be the result of the juicy rare steak and salad that you gouged in some fancy restaurant a couple of days previously.

Being a little more informed than our regular Joe, my business associate and I realised that we were most probably suffering from a condition called shigellosis. This is a condition caused by bacteria that contaminates food as a result of human food handlers not washing their hands properly. It might be an interesting challenge for our sloppy public health authorities to walk around our city and conduct a census to determine how many food handlers actually wear gloves and head gear. The result will most likely come at a paltry five per cent.

We also reflected, with a bit of anxiety, the number of times we had visited our favourite nyama choma joint and watched our friendly butcher assistant cut the meat with his bare fingers, having of course previously cleared bottles from tables, wiped counter tops and probably passed by for a short call at some point. It may also be interesting to note that he probably walked an hour to work that morning and last had a shower the previous day. Appalling? Of course it is.

Well, as paying customers, we are at times our own worst enemies. If we are collectively more incessant on insisting on high standards of hygiene and voting with our feet by walking out of seedy restaurants, there will most likely be an overall improvement in standards. But, characteristically we are more akin to putting stomach matters before brain matters. We would rather indulge in the tasty food now and think about the consequences later.

As the great Chinese proverb goes, talk to those who understand and give food to those who are hungry.

It is said that hunger is one of the few cravings that cannot be appeased with another solution. However, next time you feel like a packet of chips, make sure you favourite chips shop is not using brake fluid to deep fry the stuff.