A starving nation: transnational cartels dictate what’s for breakfast in Kenya

Kenya can boast of being a regional hub for many things, but food sovereignty isn’t one of them, as the latest import dependency ratio on its food balance sheets shows. And not all of these imports are legal, or safe to eat.

The trade of substandard foodstuffs is controlled by criminal cartels that run from Kenya with regional links to Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia. While genuine traders follow Kenya’s import regulations, criminals are bringing food products such as sugar, maize, rice, milk powder, vegetables and pulses full of mercury, lead and other insoluble matters unfit for human consumption into the country.

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