Homa Bay clarifies on substandard maize meal

The Homa Bay County government has said there should be no panic over the poisoning of maize flour manufactured at the Kigoto Maize Milling Plant in the county.

This follows reports by the Kenya Bureau of Standards indicating that flour from the factory is unfit for human consumption.

Homa Bay County Chief Officer for Investment Ellyas Orondo clarified that the 36 bales of maize flour whose quality has been questioned by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) were not meant for sale.

KBS took samples of the flour produced by Kigoto Maize Mill on August 28 for a test and found the quality of the sample to be substandard.

Orondo explained that the 36 bales were meant for testing after the miller stopped producing flour for some months.

“What happened is that our machine stopped working for some months. When we were resuming production, we set aside the 36 bales for testing the quality of our flour. That is what was tested by KEBS and we acknowledge their results,” Orondo said.

Orondo said the flour was meant to be discarded if the test results turned out to be negative.

The KEBS wrote a letter to the county on September 13 and informed them that the flour sample was substandard.

Orondo said they had discarded the 36 bales after getting results of the test. “We discarded the bales whose quality was questionable,” Orondo said.

After the test, the county bought fresh maize that was dried to meet the standards required by KEBS. The industry is producing the maize flour branded Mokwa, in the market.