‘Let’s Ban Dangerous Pesticides Collectively!’ – Kenya Tells COMESA States
Agriculture CS Mutahi Kagwe and his Kenyan delegation attended the joint Comesa Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture, Natural Resources, and the Environment in Lusaka.
Kenya has called on the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) to implement a regional ban on dangerous pesticides.
Kenya is concerned that member states’ varying chemical laws pose a rising risk to food safety, public health, and regional agricultural trade.
Mutahi Kagwe, Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and Livestock Development, asked the union to swiftly unify chemical safety regulations.
CS Kagwe was addressing the 9th Joint COMESA Ministerial Meeting on Agriculture, Natural Resources, and the Environment in Lusaka.
He warned that continuing to use pesticides that are banned in some member states but authorized in others jeopardizes cross-border sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) safeguards.
KENYA DEMANDS COMESA BAN ON HAZARDOUS PESTICIDES TO SAFEGUARD FOOD SAFETY AND FARMER HEALTH
— Ministry of Agriculture & Livestock Development (@kilimoKE) August 8, 2025
Kenya has made an urgent call for a regionwide crackdown on the use of hazardous pesticides within the COMESA bloc, pic.twitter.com/j7qhEaNuUF
“The current situation where a pesticide banned in one country continues to be used next door completely undermines our collective SPS efforts,” said CS Kagwe.
“We are exposing our farmers, our consumers, and our markets to unnecessary and unacceptable risk.”
Kenya said that without a unified regulatory strategy, efforts to assure food safety and protect public health would be useless.
According to Kagwe, regulatory loopholes have allowed unscrupulous traders to exploit variations in national regulations.
This has resulted in compromised produce and a loss of public confidence in agricultural systems.
"The current situation where a pesticide banned in one country continues to be used next door,completely undermines our collective SPS [Sanitary and Phytosanitary] efforts. We are exposing our farmers, our consumers, and our markets to unnecessary and unacceptable risk." CS Kagwe pic.twitter.com/9e3F6vtApY
— Ministry of Agriculture & Livestock Development (@kilimoKE) August 8, 2025
“We must not let fragmented policies stand in the way of our people’s safety. Harmonizing chemical standards is not optional — it is urgent,” he said.
Kagwe also urged COMESA to move beyond debates and take effective policy action.
He emphasized Kenya’s willingness to embrace ambitious changes aimed at transforming the 21-member bloc into a viable engine for agricultural resilience and economic transformation.
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Kenya’s recommendations included collaborative development of animal vaccines, cross-border norms for certified seed commerce, and the use of digital tools to enhance agricultural planning.
However, Kagwe underlined that removing dangerous agrochemicals should be handled as a primary priority.
“Let this meeting be remembered not for what we discussed, but for what we dared to do,” he concluded.
COMESA is made up of 21 member states: Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
‘Let’s Ban Dangerous Pesticides Collectively!’ – Kenya Tells COMESA States
