KEBS withdraws 5,840 bags of substandard fertiliser from Kenyan market

The Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) has been forced to seize 5,840 bags of substandard fertiliser from the market.

This comes amid fears from farmers that they are being sold substandard fertiliser even as they toil to till their land and harvest from their sweat.

On Tuesday, farmers from Kakamega County lamented about being sold fertiliser that consisted more of stones than solvable matter.

According to KEBS Managing Director Esther Ngari, tests done on BL-GPC Original fertiliser manufactured by SBL Innovate Limited showed that it was substandard and therefore not fit to be in sold in the country.

Speaking when she appeared before Agriculture committee of the National Assembly on Wednesday, Ms. Ngari said the company had initially applied and been granted a permit to supply the fertiliser in January 2023, but the fertiliser that was tested this year was not the one being sold at the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) warehouses.

“The product which KEBS initially certified is different from what has been seized from various NCPB depots in the country and condemned as substandard and counterfeit and thus not suitable for sale in the market,” she said.

She told the MP John Mutunga-led committee that out of the 59 samples they took and tested, the fertiliser failed the test of being organic, and that instead it was diatomite.

“Because of the failures that we witnessed after we did the testing, we went ahead and withdrew the product. We suspended the permit and seized the product in the NCPB warehouses, we have not seen the fertiliser anywhere else,” the KEBS boss said.

Members of the committee expressed fears that the fertiliser had been in the market for a year before the standards body found out that it was not fit for use in the country.

“How often do you do your surveillance? What is the effect to the farmers that bought and used this fertiliser? Does it have any effect to the crops?” Posed committee chair and Tigania West MP Mutunga.

Ms. Ngari however said they swung into action after tip-off from a journalist on the possibility of the fertiliser being counterfeit, although they were initially denied by the NCPB to take samples and test the fertiliser until they wrote and official request.

She however insisted that the fertiliser was not among the subsidized fertiliser that is being sold by the government.

The committee that is investigating the possibility of substandard fertiliser being sold to Kenyan farmers is set to meet Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi and NCPB next week on the same issue.