Kenya Dairy Board to launch revised milk laws on March 9

Kenya Dairy Board Managing Director Margaret Kibogy. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • In one of the proposals by the regulator, penalties and fines for various offences were pegged at a maximum of Sh500,000.

  • The draft regulations were withdrawn before they could be presented to the National Assembly for approval.

Exactly one year after the controversial draft dairy regulations were rejected by milk producers, the Kenya Dairy Board (KDB) will undertake a fresh public participation across the country to convince producers to support the new rules.

In March last year KDB was forced to shelve the rules which dairy farmers described as punitive and draconian.

In one of the proposals by the regulator, penalties and fines for various offences were pegged at a maximum of Sh500,000.

DAIRY REGULATIONS

However, after 12 months KDB is back to the drawing board. The regulator will launch its review of draft dairy regulations on March 9 in Kakamega, Kitale, Garissa and Nyeri.

“The review of the Draft Dairy Regulations has been finalised. The document is ready for presentation to the public to give their input,” said KDB Managing Director Margaret Kibogy.

In a notice sent to producers, Ms Kibogy announced that the Dairy Regulations Taskforce will also collect views from producers in Kisumu, Uasin Gishu, Makueni, Marsabit, Kisii, Nakuru, Nyandarua, Meru, Mombasa, Embu and Nairobi counties.

The taskforce is expected to complete its work on March 17 with the final public participation meeting at Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development in Ngara, Nairobi.

MILK QUALITY

The draft regulations were withdrawn before they could be presented to the National Assembly for approval.

This is in line with the Statutory Instruments Act of 2013, which states that all subsidiary laws generated by government agencies must be adopted by the legislators.

The dairy farmers rejected the proposed regulations which had barred them from selling milk even to their neighbours before pasteurisation.   

The regulations also proposed that milk must be sold based on quality. Farmers would only sell their produce to contracted processors. The rules also proposed that cooling of milk should be done within the shortest time possible to prevent multiplication of unwanted bacteria.

The regulations put emphasis on record keeping for purposes of follow up in case of a problem.

CONTAMINATION

They also laid emphasis on health of milk handlers to prevent the produce from being contaminated. 

Last year, the regulator argued that the rules were meant to make locally produced milk safe and spur competition of the produce in the country and in the region.

“The regulations were meant to enable Kenya to export safe milk that meets international standard,” said KDB boss in a past interview.

KDB added that the measures were aimed at protecting consumers from consuming contaminated milk.

Other areas the draft regulations is expected to tackle include registration, milk handling, transport and storage.