Kenya: AFA to conduct a crackdown to ensure food safety

The Agriculture & Food Authority (AFA) will start inspections to make sure that all food consumed in the country is safe with immediate effect. The Acting Director General Harsama Kello says that many government agencies were deployed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to check on the safety of all food leaving the country for the export market but no one has taken the initiative of checking on what was being consumed locally. He is concerned that some of the food intended for export and is rejected at the airport due to high chemical residues finds its way into the local market. Kello says that they will start a crackdown on dangerous chemicals that were being used in growing vegetables like cabbages, spinach, sukumawiki, tomatoes and other crops in the rural areas and transported to urban centers. The Director General says they will be examining chemical residues in vegetables as they had information that some chemicals being used in them were dangerous and ...