By John Oyuke
Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) has banned the use of loose standardisation marks on local and imported products.
The standards body asked importers and manufacturers to apply the marks on individual products, and not on outer packaging.
Acting Managing Director Joel Kioko said the bureau plans to tighten implementation of the marks to eradicate cases of abuse.
Implementation of the two marks — Standardisation Mark on local products (SM) and Import Standardisation Mark (ISM) on specified imported products became effective on March 1.
The Standardisation Mark is a mandatory quality mark granted to manufacturers who comply with the relevant approved Kenya Standards.
Kioko, however, said surveillance by Kebs had revealed some gaps in the implementation process that need to be dealt with.
Temporary measure
"Kebs will soon invite stakeholders to review issues arising from the implementation to incorporate experiences so far realised to improve on the future implementation," he said in a public notice.
Kioko observed that some businesses apply loose stickers on their products, although such application was to be a temporary measure applicable only on products that were already packed at the time of the deadline. He said all eligible applicants should incorporate the standardisation marks onto the artwork of the printed labels.
"The application of loose stickers must stop immediately," Kioko ordered.
Recently, Kebs clarified that it had not issued any permit to use a standardisation mark on bhang or related products, following a case where the mark was found on a package carrying bhang.
It said the mark was issued for use on the cement bag as a product. It said the bag was designed for packaging cement not bhang.
On the application of the marks on outer packages, he said this was a concession only given to some applicants, especially the shrink-wrap manufacturers to apply the mark on the larger packages.
He said this was a temporary measure, because by the time of the deadline, some goods were already packed and it would have been cumbersome to unpack, mark individual products and repack them.
