Kephis raids firm, confiscates uncertified seeds

The Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (Kephis) on Friday confiscated 13,200kg of uncertified seeds from a company in Nakuru.

They included maize, sorghum, soya beans and green gram seeds.

UNCERTIFIED

Kephis Managing Director Esther Kimani said farmers lose millions of shillings buying seeds that cannot grow.

She said their inspectors had been on the ground since Tuesday when they got a tip about the company packaging uncertified seeds.

They tested the seeds and found that some of them were not certified, while others had been rejected by Kephis over poor quality.

“We have been doing surveillance to see the kind of seeds sold to farmers.

“We got information that the company was packaging uncertified seeds and when our officers came to this granary, they found that the company had been selling seeds that were rejected by Kephis and others which were not certified at all,” Ms Kimani said.

QUALITY

The inspectors said the company had forged the seed regulator’s security labels that farmers use to establish whether seeds have been certified and are safe for planting.

“Food security is among the big four agenda. We want farmers to get quality seeds that will get them the yield deserved from their labour,” said the MD.

She added that the uncertified seeds were already in the market, as some of them were brought back from shops in towns as far as Molo, Nyahururu and Homa Bay.

“The ones we found are worth over Sh2 million. We know seed business is lucrative but traders should seek advice from Kephis so as to sell the right material because farmers lose a lot,” Ms Kimani said.

Kephis plans to take the company to court.