City vendors to be arraigned for selling uninspected food

Over 10 vendors from Nairobi will be arraigned on Wednesday to answer to charges of selling uninspected food to city residents.

They were arrested on Monday by the City Inspectorate and Health officials who have been conducting daily inspection of food outlets in the city.

Seven from Kamkunji are currently being detained in Kamkunji Police Station while five from Embakasi are at Embakasi Central Police Station.

Early this month, the county had given all food vendors, eateries and other outlets two weeks to re-apply for inspection.

Nairobi Health Executive Mohamed Dagane said no one will operate or sell food without being inspected.

"We made this resolve and we want to effect it to the latter to avoid any health problems now and in the future," Dagane said.

He added that they are not only targeting food vendors but food handlers in general.

The Health CEC added that a major crackdown with CBD in areas like River-road, globe-cinema is currently underway.

“We are not only targeting street food vendors but also big hotels they should make sure that hygiene is properly maintained,” he said.

Last month, Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko called on health officials to ensure the exercise is done on a daily basis and come up with ways of stopping unscrupulous food vendors from infiltrating the market.

The County Government is also expected to expand its food inspection department to meet the demands of the growing population.

On July 18, six supermarkets had their food sections shut down for contravening regulations on food handling.

This was after they discovered the meat section of Tuskys supermarket along Kenyatta Avenue with 63,000 milligrams of Sodium Metabisulfite per kilogram.

This was contrary to the required limit of a maximum of 5,000 milligrams per kilogram.

Dagane has promised more stringent measures that will ensure only safe food is sold in Nairobi.

The Agriculture and Livestock department is also working closely with the two sectors to ensure that this is achieved.

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