KEBS responds to fears of unsafe goods in supermarkets and shops after sugar scandal
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KEBS says good in supermarkets and shops are fit for human consumption after sugar scandal
KEBS says good in supermarkets and shops are fit for human consumption after sugar scandal.
On Friday, May 19, Esther Ngari, the acting managing director of the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), allayed concerns the goods on the shelves of supermarkets and retail stores were unfit for human consumption.
Speaking to the media, Ngari gave Kenyans the reassurance that the Bureau had increased surveillance to make sure products reaching the shelves adhered to the necessary criteria.
Enhancing professionalism and honesty was one of the policies the Bureau enacted to prevent some KEBS employees from releasing rejected items to the public.
“Because Kenyans are depending on the Kenya Bureau of Standards to ensure that we can give them what is safe and what they can depend on. So the most important thing is high integrity in all areas of operations,” Ngari stated.
Ngari added that the authority had scaled up the testing process to ensure that only safe goods are allowed on the market.
“We have always come in to ensure that we are on time to test whatever is in the market and whatever is going to our consumers because at the end of the day, we have to protect our consumers,” she added.
Besides scaling up operations, Jeremiah Kinyua, Chairman of the National Standards Council, maintained that KEBS was planning to increase laboratories to enhance the testing process.
Kinyua also assured Kenyans that KEBS had laid out plans to trace some of the goods hitting shops and supermarkets.
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“The assurance we have put at the bureau is to have accredited laboratories to support the system of the economy in that the money you pay is consistent with the quality of goods that we purchase,” Kinyua insisted.
KEBS assurance to Kenyans came after condemned sugar was released to the market. Addressing the mess, President William Ruto suspended 27 officials, including the KEBS boss Bernard Njiriani.
“In recognition of the unique mandate of the agencies as vanguards of public health and safety, it is manifest that some officers in the relevant agencies abdicated their responsibilities, at the risk of public harm.
“Consequently, it is noted that the Cabinet Secretaries for National Treasury and Economic Planning, and Investments, Trade and Industry, have sanctioned administrative action to suspend the officers pending investigations,” Ruto’s Chief of Staff, Felix Koskei stated.
The sugar consignment comprising 20,000 bags (each 50kgs), had been imported into the country in the year 2018 and condemned by KEBS.
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