• Aflatoxin levels of maize from Embu, Meru, Ukambani and parts of Nanyuki is at a high of between 40 -70 parts per billion.
• Hotspots of aflatoxin contamination in Kenya according to KALRO are Machakos, Makueni, Kitui, Tharaka Nithi, Meru, Tana River, Taita Taveta, Kwale, parts of Kajiado and Kilifi.
Image: FILE
Kenyans are consuming maize that is highly contaminated with aflatoxin.
Up to 90 per cent of the maize sold in the local market is contaminated, a miller says. Ken Nyaga, chairman United Grains Millers Association, said the grain is unfit for human consumption. He spoke to the Star on Tuesday.
He asked the government to look into the situation because the purchasing power of consumers had dropped because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Many urban dwellers are not buying packaged unga. They instead get maize from rural areas and milling it into flour.
Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organisation director general Eliud Kireger explained that aflatoxin is produced by a naturally occurring fungus that is found in the soil.
When maize is not dried properly, the concentration of the toxin grows under damp conditions.
“Nobody is checking the safety of the maize coming from home to people living in the cities. This maize is not tested and most of the maize with farmers did not dry properly due to the short rains that went on till January. Most of this maize is highly contaminated, Nyaga said.
"Some soils in the country have problems because aflatoxin comes from the soil. Farmers do not have the capacity or knowhow to test the aflatoxin level of the maize they are storing,”.
In 2010, over 2.3 million bags of maize were condemned because of high aflatoxin contamination levels, costing the government millions of shillings. In 2004, at least 120 Kenyans died for consuming food infected with aflatoxin.
Nyaga said only maize produced in some areas in the North Rift is safe and free from aflatoxin. He said the situation is worse in places like Embu, Meru, Ukambani and parts of Nanyuki where the aflatoxin level is at a high of 40 -70 parts per billion (ppb).
In areas like Naivasha and Mai Mahui, the aflatoxin level in maize is between 25 to 30 parts per billion.
“Maize from Uganda is high with aflatoxin levels of 100 ppb and maize from Tanzania has started coming with the contamination,” Nyaga said.
Kireger said the hotspots of aflatoxin contamination in Kenya include Machakos, Makueni, Kitui, Tharaka Nithi, Meru, Tana River, Taita Taveta, Kwale, parts of Kajiado and Kilifi.
The level of toxin allowed in Kenya is below 10 parts per billion. But anything beyond 10ppb is dangerous.
In September, former Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri commissioned the Aflasafe manufacturing plant at Kalro Katumani in Machakos.
The product manufactured is trade marked as AflasafeKE01 to manage aflatoxin, developed by researchers from Kalro and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture with the support of the US government.
“The National and county governments should intervene and support farmers by subsiding the Aflasafe product that is used when planting to help reduce aflatoxin in the soil. If farmers use the product for two to three seasons, then we can fight aflatoxin in the country,” Nyaga said.
Edited by Henry Makori