The Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) has banned at least 30 brands of hand sanitizers for not meeting the required standards meant for the products.
According to a statement from KEBS, the standard specification for instant sanitizers set the minimum requirement of the alcohol content at 60%v/v among other parameters that must be complied with.
“Sanitizers contain antiseptic properties or agents that when used disinfects the hands and can be used on their own when soap and water is not available. They protect users by eliminating or reducing viruses, bacteria and other disease causing pathogens. Therefore the use of non-compliant sanitizers will dupe Kenyans into false sense of security that they have properly sanitized thereby undermining the efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19,” read the statement in part.
Below is the list of sanitizers banned by KEBS.
According to KEBS, the permits for the sanitizers listed above have, therefore, been suspended with immediate effect to allow consumers make informed choices that will help ‘flatten the curve’ of spread and infection of COVID-19.
Consequently, manufacturers of the said products have been instructed to discontinue manufacturing of offering for sale the affected sanitizers. They are required to recall all the substandard sanitizers from the market corrective actions whose effectiveness shall be confirmed by KEBS before suspension of permits are lifted.
