The Anti-Counterfeit Authority (ACA) has denied accusations that government officials had planned to sell contaminated rice valued at Sh150 million to the public.
On August 25, the ACA clarified that reports by Nation Africa and NTV were misleading and that the rice in question had been approved by the Kenya Bureau of Standards. ACA said the company in question had imported 10,000 bags of rice from Pakistan on June 28, 2022, and the rice had passed all laboratory tests for human consumption. According to ACA, the rice had an expiry date of July 14, 2023, and was deemed safe for consumption.
The importation of rice into Kenya was authorized by the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service with a permit number issued on June 18, 2022. However, a complaint was filed on July 26, 2022, by another company alleging that the rice posed health risks and violated their intellectual property rights. As a result, the Anti-Counterfeit Authority seized the rice on August 31, 2023, for further investigation.
Despite the controversy, the authority assures that all issues were investigated and cleared after thorough testing and verification. The Daily Nation had reported that the shipment from Pakistan consisted of over 10,000 bags of counterfeit rice packaged as a popular brand and worth approximately Sh150 million. The media outlet disclosed that some of the counterfeit rice had already reached the market before the Anti-Counterfeit Authority became aware of its arrival in Kenya in July 2022.
The media house continues to divulge that a food producer in Thika found out that there was contaminated rice being sold under their brand name. In response, the Anti-Counterfeit Agency (ACA) went to a warehouse in Mombasa and confiscated the remaining stock of the fake rice. However, ACA made an agreement with the importer to release the commodity.
