WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/2/Add.86/Suppl.1 
2 June 2005 
 (05-2258) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
STATEMENT ON CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES 
IMPLEMENTED IN KENYA 
 
Communication from the Republic of  Kenya
 
 
Supplement  
   The following communication, dated 31 May 2005, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of the Republic of Kenya
. 
_______________ 
  
1. This document describes the current status of the applied conformity assessment procedures 
in Kenya and states future plans and actions in this area. 
2. The overall conformity assessment activities that in clude standardisation, inspection, market 
surveillance, testing, certification, metrol ogy and accreditation, are mainly implemented by 
governmental bodies.  Some private bodies also perform certification and testing.  Hence, the quality assurance of these activities are of paramount importance.   The major official agency working in this 
area in Kenya is the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS). 
Following is a description of these activities: 
 
I. INSPECTION AND MARKET SURVEILLANCE 
3. Various regulatory and/or conformity assessment bodies (CABs) inspect imported and locally 
produced products to ensure their compliance with  Kenya standards and technical regulations.  These 
bodies include Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture 
Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Ministry of Livest ock and Fisheries, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), 
Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Serv ice (KEPHIS), the Kenya Police etc. 
4. Inspection on imported products starts at the por ts of entry and includes examination and or 
inspection of each consignment, sampling and tes ting of products against Kenya standards and 
technical regulations. 
5. Locally produced products are monitored regul arly by conducting systematic visits to 
factories according to annual, quarterly and monthly plans that are prepared based on the risk of the 
product and the previous inspection and test results.  During the visits, the production lines and storage areas are inspected, samples drawn and submitted for testing.  In cases where repetitive 
deviations are identified and the manufacturer is not willing to make improvements, legal action may 
be taken in accordance with the provisions of the St andards Act, Cap 496 of the laws of Kenya, and or 
any other applicable national law. G/TBT/2/Add.86/Suppl.1 
Page 2  
 
 6. Other forms of inspection are carried out by various regulatory bodies of government under 
the provisions of various Acts of parliament.  These include environmental inspections/audits by 
National Environmental Management Authority (N EMA), factory inspection by the Ministry of 
Labour, motor vehicle inspection by the motor vehicle inspection unit of the Ministry of Transport and Communications, meat inspection by the Ministry  of Livestock and Fisheries, healthcare facilities 
and drugs by the Ministry of Health etc. 
7. There is however, the need to harmonise the re gulatory infrastructure that issue technical 
regulations in order to make them more effective and efficient in line with the requirements and or 
obligations of WTO/TBT agreement. 
8. Local authorities that include councils, municipa lities etc., in addition to the above-mentioned 
authorities, depending on their scope of work, conduct re gular inspections of the local markets.  This 
market surveillance is done on a random basis and on account of complaints received from consumers 
or users of products. 
9. Due to the inadequacy of th e inspection and testing infrastructure in Kenya, the quality 
assurance system does not adequately  cover all products that are placed in the Kenyan market.  This 
hampers the effectiveness of health and safety assurance of the Kenyan citizens and environment 
protection. 
10. KEBS is in the process of re-launching the use of the safety mark in the Kenyan industry as 
one way of solving this problem and hence ensu ring the protection of human health and safety. 
11. As one of the regulatory agency in national biosafety issues, KEBS is also building the 
necessary capacity in terms of personnel training and equipment acquisition.  This will enable it to 
effectively monitor and control products contai ning Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). 
II. TESTING 
12. There are quite a number of public and private testing laboratories in the country.  However, 
due to the high cost involved in running a testing facility, this activity is dominated by the public 
sector. 
13. KENAS has identified a total of about 100 laboratories that carry out tests in various fields in 
the country and which will benefit from KENAS accreditation services.  These include: 
y KEBS laboratories that perform a wide number of tests in various fields.  Five (5) of these 
laboratories are accredited.  Two (2) laboratories – current voltage and resistance and volume and 
flow have been accredited by DKD of Germany and three food, bio-chemical and microbiology 
laboratories have been accredited by UKAS.  The scope of testing include electricity, food, 
chemical analysis, construction, mechanical test s, and water, in addition to limited scope of 
calibration, KEBS uses these facilities for asses sing conformity of locally produced and or 
imported products to Kenya Standa rds and/or approved standards. 
y Government chemist laboratories for testing f ood products, chemical products, cosmetics, and 
forensic tests. 
y Materials research and testing department of the Ministry of Roads and Public Works for testing 
materials. 
y National public health laboratories of the Minist ry of Health for testing food products and 
cosmetics. 
y The National agriculture laboratories of the Ministry  of Agriculture for testing of soils, fertilizers. 
y
 The mines and geology laboratories of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources for 
testing of precious metals.  G/TBT/2/Add.86/Suppl.1 
 Page 3 
 
 
 y Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPH IS) laboratories for testing plant materials. 
y Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) labor atories involved in research in agriculture. 
y Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KEMFRI) and Kenya Medical Research Institute 
(KEMRI) laboratories. 
y Universities of Nairobi, Moi, Kenyatta, JKUAT, Egerton teaching and research laboratories in 
various academic fields. 
y Private laboratories like Polucon, SGS, Intertek testing services. 
y Private medical laboratories carrying our various tests in the medical field. 
14. Efforts are still being made to identify other private and public sector laboratories for the 
purpose of building a data base that will facilitate provision of conformity assessment services.  Some 
of them have already applied for national accreditation. 
III. CERTIFICATION 
15. Certification in Kenya includes a quality, envi ronmental, food safety (HACCP), occupational 
health and safety management systems (OHSAS) and product certification. 
16. The four (4) registered certification bodies work ing in this field in Kenya are from both the 
private and governmental sectors.  They include KEBS-Certification Department, SGS, Bureau 
Veritas (BVQI) and CVA international. 
17. The quality assurance department of KEBS administers a voluntary product certification 
scheme and grants permits to industry to use the Diamond Mark of Quality on products.  The process 
includes assessment to ascertain compliance with specified technical requirements. Efforts are 
underway to administer the scheme in accordance wi th the requirements of the ISO/IEC Guide 65 and 
to also review its placement in the KEBS organigram. 
18. The certification department implements a quality management system that complies with the 
requirements of ISO/IEC Guides 62 And 66.  The department is at an advanced stage of seeking accreditation and so that its certification r esults would be accepted internationally. 
19. To date KEBS certification department has certified 19 organisations to QMS, EMS and 
HACCP.  The other three certification bodies ha ve certified a total of 137 organisations. 
IV. ACCREDITATION 
20. The National Accreditation Body (NAB) – Kenya Accreditation Service (KENAS) has been 
established under the Standards Act, Cap 49 6 vide Legal No. 26 of 8 March 2005. 
21. The Board of KENAS had representation from all st akeholders in order to assure impartiality, 
independence and create the necessary trust and confidence. 
22. KENAS has also taken over the functions of Quality Systems Assessment Committee 
(QSAC) (established under Legal Notice No. 90/ 95) and the National Calibration Scheme (NCS) 
(established under Legal Notice No. 80/84) which were registering assessors and accrediting 
calibration laboratories respectively. 
23. QSAC has registered a total of 115 assessors  whereas NCS has accredited a total of 25 
calibration laboratories. G/TBT/2/Add.86/Suppl.1 
Page 4  
 
 24. KENAS will provide accreditation services to tes ting and calibration laboratories according to 
the International Standard ISO/IEC 17025, inspection bodies according to ISO/IEC 17020 and certification bodies according to ISO/IEC 17021. 
25. KENAS has put in place provisions that will allow CABs located in other territories to 
provide certification services to local organizati ons under the same conditions as those operating 
locally. 
26. In order to become a full member of ILAC/I AF, KENAS is currently working on fulfilling 
and effectively implementing the requirements of  the ISO/IEC 17011.  This will enable it sign 
multilateral agreements (MRAs)/multilateral arrange ments (MLAs) with international accreditation 
bodies.  This will not only facilitate the acceptance of  Kenyan exports to international markets, but 
will also enhance the global acceptance of Kenyan conformity assessment results i.e. "one test 
accepted everywhere" i.e. acceptance of test reports calibration certificates or certificates of registration issued by accredited conformity assessment bodies. 
V. METROLOGY 
27. KEBS has provided metrology services since 1981 in the fields of mass, hardness, moisture 
content, dimensional metrology, time and frequenc y, pressure, electrical energy, temperature and 
humidity, volume and flow, density and viscosity, fo rce, torque, direct and alternating current and 
instrumentation services. 
28. In order to assure traceability, the nationa l measurement standards at KEBS metrology 
laboratories are used to calibrate and monitor the secondary standards and these are in turn used to 
calibrate and monitor the numerous working standa rds and equipment on the factory shop floors and 
laboratory benches. 
29. International traceability of the National Standard s is achieved by inter-comparison with other 
metrology laboratories which are in countries that  are members of the International Bureau of 
Weights and Measures (BIPM). 
30. The current KEBS organigram is being revi ewed to facilitate provision of conformity 
assessment services in metrology in accordance w ith the requirements of WTO/TBT agreement. 
__________