More standards agency staff face sack after vetting

National Standards Council Chairman, Ken Wathome chats with Peter Munya, CS Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives when the minister met with the KEBS management at his office. [Photo: Standard]

The board of the standards agency has started the process of vetting its employees.

The development comes in the wake of a string of scandals at the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs), including the contraband sugar scam that implicated some senior managers who have since been arrested and charged in court.

Trade, Enterprise and Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya said yesterday at a briefing in Nairobi that the Government had intensified the war on illegal trade, most of which is aided by unscrupulous Kebs officials.

“It is true that we have started vetting employees, especially those in significant departments such as quality assurance and inspection,” said Mr Munya.

“This is after we realised that we have employees of questionable ethical standing who have been responsible for the rot at Kebs. After the vetting, we will also carry out a serious restructuring that is aimed at retaining only those we believe have not been morally corrupted.”

Review contracts

The CS said the Government would also undertake a vigorous review of multi-billion-shilling contracts that Kebs has signed with international standards companies that usually ascertain the quality of Kenyan imports from their countries of origin.

The firms then issue the importers with certificates of conformity before they are allowed to ship the goods.

“We will be reviewing the contracts that we have signed with such companies and take action, including terminating these agreements,” said Mr Munya.

Charged in court

"In fact, the Government puts most of the blame on these companies for the sub-standard products that are docked at the port of Mombasa. This is because these companies should have carried out their role of inspecting the products before they were shipped to our country,” he added. About 1.7 million bags of contraband sugar, 361 containers of bad fertiliser and 484 containers of sub-standard edible oil have been seized.

Kebs former managing director Charles Ongwae has been charged in court in connection with the contraband sugar said to be laced with mercury and other harmful substances. Munya recently swapped places with Adan Mohamed who now heads the East African Community docket.