You might be unknowingly consuming substandard cooking oil; it emerged at a Senate sitting on Thursday.
A Senate established that samples of the imported edible oils failed Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) quality test but somehow found their way into the market.
Investigations by the Senate Trade Committee have revealed that the Kenya National Trading Corporation Limited (KNTC), through contracted suppliers imported edible oil on diverse dates between May 2023 and November 2023.
However, despite the imports coming with a certificate of conformity to the Kenyans standards, random sampling unearthed just how low consumer protection is observed in the country.
Submissions by the standards body to the committee show that a total of 73 consignments of edible cooking oil from Malaysia all accompanied with Certificate of Conformity (CoC) entered the country.
This equalled to 1,027,678 twenty-litre jerrycans imported in the country, or just about 20.6million litres of cooking oil imports.
Out of these a total of 44 consignments have been approved in KEBS Import Management System (KIMS), while six consignments are in submission stage and are yet to be approved for release by KEBS.
The remaining twenty-three (23) consignments are yet to be declared or entered by the importer (clearing agent) to Customs.
The whereabouts of the imported edible oils consignment is not clear as a facility visit by the senators early in the year failed to locate them sparking concerns that they may have been released into the market.
However, eight samples from the 44 consignments that had been cleared were tested by KEBS and shockingly failed the local standards parameters.
Out of the 1,027,678 twenty litre jerrycans imported, KEBS wrote to Kenya KNTC directing the entity to hold 293,800 jerrycans that were among the consignments that failed the test.
This was equal to 5.88 million litres of the total 21 million litres of edible oils that were imported into the country.
KEBS managing director Esther Ngari said that out of the 44 consignments, KEBS targeted eight consignments for destination inspection.
“Samples of edible oil were drawn from the consignments for testing against the requirements of Kenya Standard Specification for fortified edible oils and fats.” said Ngari.
“Out of the eight sampled consignments, a total of seven failed in vitamin A while one consignment failed in both insoluble impurities and Vitamin A,” she told the committee.
KEBS raised the issue with KNTC, which led to the holding of the eight consignments ‘for destruction’ or to be returned to source.
The probe further revealed that that several consignments of edible oil imported through contracted suppliers were rejected by the standards body between May and November 2023.
The first rejection occurred on May 6, 2023, on a consignment of 53,200 twenty-litre jerrycans of edible oil that was imported by Malaysian firm Multi Commerce FZC
According to a special audit report released last month, Multi Commerce is a foreign company that was incorporated in Kenya four months after signing the KNTC contract for the multi-billion shillings’ edible oil deal.
On June 10, 2023, another 66,500 from the same supplier was rejected, followed by an additional 39,900 litres and later in June 24, 2023, a further 40,260 containers.
In October, consignments from different suppliers faced rejection as well. On October 1, 13,420 jerrycans of 20-liter cooking oil from Ascent Groups were also rejected.
On October 20, 26,840 jerrycans from Inno Wangs faced the same fate; the rejections continued into November, with two consignments from Inno Wangs, both totalling 26,840 litres, being rejected on November 8, 2023.
Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago sought to know why KEBS failed to recall all the imports after all the samples failed the tests.
“Now when you do something and you find out of 10, seven samples have failed what does that say about KEBS? Would you still go ahead and approve the rest of the shipment or the sample should act as a red flag,” asked Mandago.
In his defence, Quality Assurance and Inspection director at KEBS Geoffrey Murira said that most of the shipment came with a certificate of conformity.
“I do not a definite number of how many jeryycans were picked from each sample. But I’m saying there is a specific number that was drawn based on scientific representation,” said Murira.
Kiambu senator Karungo Thangwa questioned why KEBS failed to ensure that the substandard cooking oil was destroyed despite the law granting a 30-day period for return policy or destruction.
Despite pointing out that by the period the goods were supposed to be destroyed, DCI had taken over the case, Senator Mohamed Chute sought answers as to whether the case prevented the destruction of the substandard cooking oil.
Busia Senator Okoiti Omtatah said that four of the rejected consignment came from Multi Commerce FZC, three come from Inno Wangs that was not available in the supplier list and one comes from ascent group that was also missing in the supplier list.
The committee chair, Kajiado Senator Lenku Ole Kanar directed KEBS to submit the letters showing that they had raised concerns with the imported cooking oil.
