Beware: Cancerous skin lightening creams floods Kenyan markets

The Kenya Bureau of Standards has confessed that it is unable to stop the influx of dangerous skin lightening creams from neighbouring countries.

The organisation's officer-in-charge in the county, Dennis Onyango, said smugglers have found ways of smuggling hazardous creams through Busia and Malaba. Mr Onyango said some skin lightening creams contain mercury and can cause cancer.

He said it was regrettable that even with the strict measures his department had put in place to curb smuggling of such creams, the products continue to flood the market. More than 50 people have recently been prosecuted for smuggling banned products.