How sub-standard cooking oil found it's way in Kenyan market

Edible oil shipments arrived in the country on diverse dates between May 2023 and November 2023. [Courtesy]

Kenyans could be consuming substandard cooking oil due to negligence by officials from the Kenya National Trading Corporation (KNTC), Senators heard Thursday.

A probe by Senators heard that a total of 73 consignments of cooking oil was imported into the country by KNTC last year, out of which 44 were inspected by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS).

The quality assurance agency submitted that eight out of the 44 consignments were found to contain a total 293, 800 20-litre jerrycans (5.88 million litres) of substandard cooking oil. It is this cooking oil that Senators heard could have made its way into the market.

Appearing before the Senate Committee on Trade and Industrialisation, KEBS Chief Executive Officer Esther Ngari submitted that the edible oil shipments arrived in the country on diverse dates between May 2023 and November 2023.

She explained 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 KS EAS 769; 2019 Kenya Standard Specification for fortified edible oils and fats,” stated 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 added.

The committee chaired by  Kajiado Senator Lenku Ole Kanar was also told that KEBS recommended for the holding and destruction of the consignments by KNTC or they be returned to source. According to data relayed by the committee, the whereabouts of these consignments are now not clear.

Ngari revealed that the first consignment of the edible oil  in  53,200 20- litre Jerrycans was rejected on May 6, 2023. It was imported by Malaysian firm Multi Commerce FZC.

The second consignment of 66,500 jerrycans was rejected on June 10, 2023 and the third was rejected in June. It contained 39,900 jerrycans. The fourth was also rejected in June, holding 40,260 jerrycans, another on October 1 which had 13,420 jerrycans of 20-liter cooking oil imported by Ascent Groups.

Others included a consignment on October 20 and containing 26,840 jerrycans from Inno Wangs, and two more in November each containing 26, 840 jerrycans which were rejected on November 8, 2023.

Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago awondered why KEBS failed to recall the other 36 out of 44 consignment imports from the market.

 “...When you test something and you find that out of 10, seven samples have failed, what does that say about the product? Would you still go ahead and approve the rest of the shipment or should the sample serve as a redflag?” inquired Mandago.

In her defense, Ngari stated, “We had already rejected the oil… we did not destroy the oil because by the time the required 30 days were lapsing, the consignments were already subject to an investigation by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI),” she stated.

She added, “We communicated to KNTC the action that needed to be taken…destruction is usually a multi-agency undertaking.”

In response to Mandago’s question, Quality Assurance and Inspection director at KEBS Geoffrey Murira said that a majority of the consignment came with a certificate of conformity, thus there was no need for quality re-testing. He explained that SGS which is a company contracted by KEBS to do pre-testing of the products at the country of exportation, had issued the consignments with a certificate of consignment which shows that they had complied with relevant Kenya standards and regulations.