WHAT IS MTURA?

The habit of grabbing a roadside snack on your way home from a long day of work is common in many African cities. In Kenya, the snack of choice is often African sausage, known locally as mutura.

Mutura is an intestine-encased mixture of minced pieces of cow or goat meat, tripe, and cooled blood that’s been flavored with onions, salt, pepper, and chili. Vendors and home-grillers roast the sausage over a charcoal stove until it achieves a golden brown.

Traditionally, only men prepared mutura during special occasions, such as dowry negotiation ceremonies; the delicacy was then served only to women while the men enjoyed other parts of the slaughtered animal. Today, however, the sausage can be enjoyed by anyone.

Mutura is a common feature at celebrations and parties where a cow or a goat is slaughtered and some of its innards are barbecued. The sausage is often made right after people finish eating grilled meat. No goat-eating function feels complete without making this African sausage. At almost every party, there will be one person who is considered the expert when it comes to preparing mutura, and they take their role very seriously.

Many times, the whole process of making the sausage is a ceremony by itself, which is sprinkled with lots of laughter, jokes, and guzzles of beer or other drinks of choice. As the smoke billows from the sausage and its aroma fills the air, conversations flow and memories are made.