NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 29 -The government has presented the proposed Standards Bill, 2025 to the National Assembly’s Committee on Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, marking a major step toward overhauling Kenya’s quality and consumer protection laws.
Chaired by Marianne Kitany, the session brought together key regulators, including Trade PS Regina Ombam, National Standards Council Chair Dr. Chris Wamalwa, and KEBS Managing Director Esther Ngari, who called the Bill a landmark reform to modernize Kenya’s quality infrastructure.
The Bill seeks to replace the five-decade-old Standards Act, introducing stricter quality controls on products affecting public health, safety, and the environment. It gives KEBS expanded powers to seize non-compliant goods, halt unsafe production, and order recalls, while establishing a Standards Tribunal to ensure fairness and investor confidence.
It also clarifies KEBS’s role as the national standards body with an extended mandate over certification, metrology, and market surveillance, and creates a national registry for manufacturers and importers to boost transparency.
Ngari emphasized that the reforms aim to streamline enforcement, not add bureaucracy, aligning with the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) to strengthen local industries and competitiveness.
The Committee will continue stakeholder consultations before tabling its report. If passed, the Standards Bill, 2025 will represent one of Kenya’s most significant industrial regulatory reforms.
