Industry, Trade and Co-operatives Cabinet Secretary (CS) Peter Munya last Friday appointed a taskforce to spearhead Standard and Quality Infrastructure Reforms in Kenya.
The taskforce is expected to review and evaluate comprehensive terms and the short comings of the entire standards and infrastructure in the country and recommend reforms in pursuit to improve industrialization standards in the country.
Speaking in Nairobi, CS Munya said that the taskforce is supposed to look at the institutions that exist in the standard infrastructure including the Kenya Bureau of standards (KEBS) and any other institution dealing with standards. “The taskforce is not only confined only to KEBS it is looking at the entire infrastructure,” added Munya.
“In addition, the public is also invited to give its recommendations with regards to the task force with the aim of boosting the standards and infrastructure in the country,” he said.
The CS said that they would look at re-structuring the institutions properly identifying internal weaknesses and discover how they could improve them.
Munya pointed out that when the system was not properly structured and aligned, it was easily to loose on revenue because the standards infrastructure was not meeting the needs of the modern world.
“This is expected to see illegal and unfair practices in trade across the country eliminated within the few months,” said Munya.
Standard on Quality Infrastructure Reforms Taskforce Chairperson Wachira Maina noted that there have been major concerns about standards in Kenya and there was need for building a consensus on developing new standards in Kenya.
“Our intention is to be as open as possible in this process and in that regard, the media is going to be a very important stakeholder and we will be relying on you to communicate effectively and accurately,” added the Chairman.
They will also analyze the entire ecosystem policy, legal and legislative frameworks of the various institutions and agencies and submit to the CS a subsequently progress work reports plan at the end of every third week and a final report at the end of two months.
By Collins Juma and Joseph Ng’ang’a
