The Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) has urged Kenyans to conduct due diligence when purchasing any product from the market.
In a press briefing on Sunday, April 27, the bureau urged consumers to look out for marks of quality displayed on products and cross-check them on its official website to ensure authenticity.
"Buy products which you can see have product certification marks, that is, standardisation marks of quality. This mark of quality can be verified online, where you just type the number you have seen on our website and see whether the permit displayed there is genuine or not," KEBS stated.
"That is one way of safeguarding yourself as a consumer, ensuring by yourself that what is right before you is actually permitted to be in the market."
Apart from verifying the certification marks, KEBS implored Kenyans to expose any products circulating the markets without credible standardisation marks.
This, KEBS noted, could also include products that consumers are uncertain of or suspicious of in order to have the bureau take action and ensure Kenyans are accessing products that are up to standard.
"Blow the whistle, as a consumer, if at any given time you are getting in contact with a product whose quality you are suspecting or not quite sure of," KEBS stated.
"Raise the matter anywhere through all channels: direct phone calls to the KEBS offices, through our social media platforms and all this will trigger action so that we work together to ensure the products that are out there in the market are actually of the right quality, safe for your consumption, and actually certified and permitted to be in the market."
However, the bureau revealed that it had been employing several measures to ensure compliance, which included conducting regular monitoring operations to ensure that the quality marks in the market aligned with the products.
The monitoring was conducted through surveillance, either as part of the bureau's schemes of supervision and control or as part of market surveillance operations.
Those found not compliant are thereby sanctioned to ensure that unfit products do not saturate the market and tarnish the nation's position as a regional producer.
"If at all misuse of the mark is detected, the ones misusing the mark are equally sanctioned immediately because either you are infringing on someone's sweat, exposing people to uncertified products and generally endangering lives, or even spoiling our reputation as a manufacturing hub within the region and jeopardising the opportunities to trade within the East Africa region," KEBS stated.
