Kebs raid Chinese stores in Nairobi over fake goods
Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) officials have raided two Chinese stores in Nairobi over what they termed as quality concerns.
The officials on Wednesday raided a Chinese supermarket in Hurlinghum, Nairobi a day after the officers stormed another Chinese iron sheets outlet in town, confiscating about 7,800 substandard iron sheets.
The agency said the goods seized in the supermarket had questionable safety standards.
Leading the operation on Yisheng Supermarket situated along Marcus Garvey Road, Mr Gabriel Waiganjo, Kebs head of surveillance said most of the products could not be identified in terms of either name or content as they are labelled in Chinese.
He said that the language barrier even hindered communication as the officers set about introducing themselves and their mission.
STANDARDIZATION MARK
“The goods should have been marked in a language the target market can understand: either in English or Swahili. In the event that they are not marked in either of the two languages, a supplementary mark is affixed on the products which translates the foreign language,” he said.
Mr Waiganjo further indicated that the items did not have the crucial standardization marks on them.
Despite China’s significant investment portfolio in Kenya, the Chinese have many at times fallen out of favour with both the government and Kenyans.
“We came across a wide range of products offered for sale which are not marked as required by the Kenya Bureau of Standards. Some are supposed to be removed from the shelves especially socket outlets which violate critical safety requirements. Also, the brand of toilet papers here has less than the required 199 sheets,” he said.
“Some of the products we seized are targeted for destruction if unclaimed within fourteen days.”