New measuring standards kick in

You will now get more precise quantities of goods and services after the Government kick-started the process of developing more accurate measuring instruments.

Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) Acting Managing Director Bernard Nguyo said yesterday with the revision of how the world defines four of the basic units of measurement, including the kilogramme, consumers would no longer rely on physical objects for precision in measurement.

“This revision ensures that the international measurement system is not only robust and able to stand the test of time but also effectively support future advances in science and technology,” he said.

He spoke in Nairobi as Kenya joined the rest of the world in marking the International Day of Measurements or World Metrology Day.

Mr Nguyo said the implementation of the newly redefined basic units of measurements—a unit of mass as the kilogramme, a unit of electric current as the ampere, a unit of temperature as the kelvin and a unit of substance as the mole—had officially started.

He assured that the change to the international measurement system would not negatively affect quantities, adding that the change would only ensure a more accurate and precise measurement system anywhere, any time.

“This is to say we are neither reducing the kilogramme nor adding it but rather changing the way the kilogramme is realised at the apex such that a kilo of unga will still remain a kilo,” said Mr Nguyo.

He said the kilogramme was the last remaining base unit of the International System of Units (SI) which was defined by a material artefact, but now it will be linked to the fundamental constant of nature known as the Planck’s constant.

“The platinum-iridium prototype that is kept at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris will go into retirement after 137 years of service,” said Mr Nguyo.