Ban on used vehicle spares specific, Kebs clarifies

The Kenya Bureau of Standards has clarified that only certain used motor vehicle spare parts are banned to ensure road users' safety.

Acting Kebs managing director Bernard Nguyo said used spare parts dealers who since last week been up in arms are misinformed as the ban is on specific used spare parts.

The dealers say the ban will destroy a whole generation that depends on used spares business for their livelihood.

“Kenya Bureau of Standards has not banned the importation of used motor-vehicle spare parts into the country,” said Nguyo after a meeting with the National Assembly Trade, Industry and Cooperatives committee at PrideInn Flamingo on Friday.

He said the agency is guided by a national standard gazetted in 2013 which provides for a code of inspection and criteria for accepting the quality of used spare parts that can be permitted into the country.

“The premise here is about the safety of the users and consumers of those spare parts,” he said.

The standard provides for certain items not to be permitted into the country because their use would endanger motorists.

“For example, that standard provides that you cannot import used tyres. If you are putting on a vehicle a tyre that has already been rejected elsewhere, you are endangering the lives of those who will use that tyre," said Nguyo.

He spoke two days after Trade CS Peter Munya also clarified that the ban was specific and not a blanket one.

Only 17 categories have been banned, the CS said and maintained that the government will not relent.

Nguyo, who was with the National Assembly Trade, Industry and Cooperatives committee chair Kanini Kega, said the government has the best interests of its people at heart when it comes up with policies that protect Kenyans from harm.

He said there is nothing new in the directive, which he said has been in place since 2014 only that it has not been enforced as strictly as it should have.

“We have been implementing it. But as we continue enhancing our inspection regimes, we get to detect some abuses.”

It is these abuses that the standards agency cautions importers and the public about and which need to be adhered to.

“Aside from the items listed as prohibited, importation of used motor-vehicle spare parts is legal. We are inspecting and those that conform to the standards are being permitted as we have always done,” said Nguyo.

The items banned include oil filters, air cleaners, brake pads, clutch plates, tubes, tyres, ball joints, tie rod ends, rack ends, brake hose pipes, brake pipes, clutch cables, bearings, among others.

Kega said, “the first business of government is to protect life and property of citizens”.