Shollei decries high influx of harmful chemicals in the Kenyan market

Nakuru, Kenya, October 29 – Uasin Gishu Woman Representative Gladys Boss Shollei has raised concerns that agricultural produce found to have harmful chemical residue in the international markets find its way back to Kenya thus posing threats to food security.

Shollei, who spoke in Nakuru during an event dubbed ‘Reviving Pyrethrum Farming as an Alternative to Harmful Chemicals’, said it was unfortunate that the government had not imposed any regulations to control their influx and thus many Kenyans were unknowingly ingesting disease-causing chemical components.

“When the produce is declined in the international market, it is not destroyed, it is brought back and sold to citizens because the law is silent on residues, this could be one of the reasons there is an increase in cancer, brain damage and neurological diseases,” she said citing Kirinyaga county which reports high cancer cases and is one of the largest consumers of harmful pesticides and herbicides.

Shollei who had initially petitioned Parliament to ban 237 pesticides and herbicides that were found to be harmful, blamed the Pesticide Control and Product Board (PCPB) and Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBs) for allowing the importation and consumption of products.

“When the petition on the ban of harmful pesticides went to parliament, every MP was in agreement because this is a health issue and not political, unfortunately, it was referred to the PCPB which is mandated and regulating agro-chemicals,” she said.

She listed Europe, the United States of America, Australia, and China as some of the countries that were producing the harmful pesticides but sending produce that was found to have chemical components of their products abroad.

“If the pesticides with certain chemical components are not good for their countries of manufacture, why are they good for Africa, why are those agrochemicals being used in Kenya,” she posed.

She, therefore encouraged the use of pyrethrum-based pesticides for safer food production, environmental conservation even as she urged the government to revive the pyrethrum industry and encourage farmers to produce sufficient quantities for the three pyrethrum processing companies in the country.

The MP was accompanied by Kapi Limited Director, Ian Shawn and Pyrethrum Growers Association chairman, Justus MondaKapi Limited, Kapi is a formulator and manufacturer of pyrethrum-based pesticides that has been at the forefront in the Pyrethrum Revival campaign.

Shawn said many Kenyans do not know the benefits of pyrethrum ad called for more awareness creation for pyrethrum-based pesticides that were organic, effective, and with zero chemical residue.