Sugar, fertiliser to be tested in high seas, says Kebs chairman

Kenya Bureau of Standards Managing Director Charles Ongwae (PHOTO: FILE)

MERU, KENYA: Sugar and other goods will be tested in high seas to prevent contaminated ones getting into Kenya, Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) Board Chairman Mugambi Imanyara has said.

“We are floating the idea that the tests will be conducted before they are in the ports and if the fertilizer, sugar and others do not meet quality standards we will turn the ships away,” Mr Imanyara said.

Mr Imanyara who said in Kenya about 600 million kilograms of sugar are consumed in a year, appealed to residents to partner with the Kebs and police in the war against sub-standard goods.

Mr Imanyara said from May to end of August last year when the government allowed importation of duty free sugar many rushed to bring in the sugar.

“Since they knew the window to allow duty free sugar into Kenya would be shut the importers brought in very large consignments of the commodity,” he said during an interview on a vernacular station on Monday evening.

“The amount of sugar that was brought in three months was more than our annual consumption of sugar. And we had more sugar in the stores meaning there was a lot of sugar for a long time. Allowing in such amounts of sugar, more than we needed, was a mistake,” said Imanyara.

He said while the quality of sugar was also affected after it got contaminated during the lengthy storage period, it was a challenge to carry out appropriate tests on the amounts of sugar at the points of entry into the country.

“Some of the sugar we have confiscated came with copper or lead, because inspecting the large amounts of sugar could have been a challenge,” he said.

He said the fact that the agency only tests a sample among the thousands of bags of sugar is a loophole that they must work to seal.

He said they had directed Kebs’ laboratory experts to carry out tests to establish how lead, copper and others had been found in the sugar.

The Kebs boss said they had put in place stringent measures to stem the influx of harmful sugar and other commodities in the Kenyan market.

“It is our work to carry out tests sugar that comes in to prevent likelihood of contaminated sugar getting in. But the amount of sugar that came in in the three months was so large. In the event that a ship docks with 100, 000 bags it does not mean we test all. We could even test one bag and we find no problem, but there could be a few with contamination. But we will deal with that (loophole),” said Imanyara.