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I recently came across results of quality tests on samples of cement collected in a market surveillance operation conducted in March this year. The inescapable conclusion I arrived at is the following. The consumer of cement in Kenya is thoroughly exposed.
I say so because we also recently read newspaper articles on how a similar market survey conducted in February 2022 by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) came up with similar results.
Here is a bit of background and jargon of the trade of cement manufacturing. Manufacturers of cement produce a wide range of products of different strengths. The product is made in accordance with a standard by Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) known as KS EAS 18-1.
About 85 percent of the total cement produced in the country belongs to the category known as class 32.5 MPA. What did the quality assurance test whose results I mention above find?
First, the presence in the marketplace of large quantities of cement that did not conform to standards set by Kebs.
Secondly, existence and prevalence in the marketplace of cement whose strengths have been deliberately misrepresented by unscrupulous manufacturers or smugglers so as to hoodwink consumers.
The cement in the market must meet the specifications of the set standards because the alternative is huge risk to life and limb of the ordinary citizens.
I say so because although comprehensive data on failure and collapse of buildings that are under construction does not exist, the frequency of cases and of media reports of buildings that have collapsed during construction and especially of failure of multi storey structures in our urban areas point to a worrisome trend.
It is also noteworthy that in almost all reports and investigations of multi storey buildings that have buckled and precipitated death of ordinary citizens in places such as Nairobi, the use of sub- standard materials mainly, cement, reinforced bars , timber and the quality of concrete, – have been cited as the biggest contributory factors.
Experts in the building sector will tell you that quality of cement is the most important factor in the strength of concrete. In our context, and when viewed against the backdrop of the emergence –especially in Nairobi -of dense neighbourhoods dominated by high-rise rental housing along major road corridors, the quality and standards of cement and concrete have become both a big public health risk and a consumer protection issue.
Indeed, the multi storey tenements that are proliferating in Nairobi – in most cases- in defiance of planning and building regulations have proved to be just too prone for failure and collapse.
Indeed, good quality cement and concrete strength are a life and death matter in the context of the advent of the overpopulated sections of our cities and towns where all available space is built and where rules and regulations on maximum building heights are honoured more in breach than practice by greedy developers chasing money and wealth.
I belabour the point. But the need for protection of the vast majority of households living in the mushrooming high rise blocks of rental accommodation has never been more acute.
Yet when it comes to consumer protection and public health issues, our systems and institutions perform dismally.
Although we have consumer protection laws in our statutes, we don’t have effective mechanisms for enforcing laws and regulations.
The entities responsible for monitoring compliance with consumer protection issues and standards such the Weights and Measures Department and the Anti-Counterfeit Authority are chronically under-funded operating, with and dependent on unreliable exchequer releases.
In the circumstances, these regulatory bodies are unable to fund frequent market surveillance to determine parameters even as rudimentary as declaration of quantity in a package. They lack capacity to adequately enforce penalties for false declaration of quantity on packets.
Building experts make the point that the quality of clinker, the main raw material in manufacturing cement is critical to achieving and determining the quality of both concrete and cement.
Yet to date, the Kenya Bureau of Standards, the State agency in charge of setting standards and monitoring compliance- is yet to come up with a standard for clinker. The number of grinding companies has increased phenomenally in recent years to seven. Combined, the industry has installed capacity of 14 million tonnes.
Only a tougher regulatory regime can protect the interests of the cement consumer in Kenya.
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