Several products sold in three leading Chinese retail chains in Kenya are in breach of the law that requires goods sold locally to be labelled in English or Kiswahili.
A Business Daily investigation has uncovered that products ranging from baby and feminine care items to skincare products, personal hygiene goods, electronics and industrial adhesives are labelled purely in Mandarin.
The products, sold at Mia Duck, China Square and Panda Mart, bear the Kenya Bureau of Standards’ (Kebs) Import Standardisation Mark (ISM), indicating that they have been certified for sale in Kenya.
The revelations have sparked questions about how products that do not meet the country’s statutory labelling requirements entered the Kenyan market and reached retail shelves, posing consumption and financial risks to consumers. Their labelling in Mandarin denies consumers a window to make informed choices.
One shopper, Caleb Okari, discovered the risks first-hand after buying what he believed was an ordinary tube of household super glue from Mia Duck. The packaging and instructions were written entirely in Mandarin, a language understood by only a tiny fraction of Kenyan consumers. Assuming it was conventional glue, he bought it without understanding its intended use.
‘When I got home and tried to use it, it didn’t work the way I expected,’ Mr Okari recounted. ‘It had a strong smell and did not stick the way the super glue I’m used to does. When I scanned the writing to translate it, I realised it was actually an industrial adhesive and I had been using it all wrong.’
The translated label identified the product as an industrial adhesive designed primarily for construction and automotive applications, including bonding vehicle body panels.
Health agencies, including the US National Library of Medicine, warn that some industrial adhesives require specific handling and adequate ventilation, as prolonged skin contact or inhalation may cause dizziness, headaches, skin irritation and other adverse health effects.
Retailers told the Business Daily that customers who cannot read Mandarin should seek help from staff or use translation applications before purchasing products.
A spokesperson for Mia Duck said buyers are expected to ask staff for assistance, while China Square and Panda Mart said employees are available to translate product labels and instructions for customers.
The practice, however, is inconsistent with Kenya’s labelling laws, which require mandatory product information to be provided in English or Kiswahili so consumers can make informed purchasing decisions and use products safely.
The Weights and Measures (Sale and Labelling of Goods) Rules of 1999 state that ‘every declaration required to be made on a package under this rule shall be either in English or Kiswahili or in both English and Kiswahili.’
It requires that products bear the name and address of the manufacturer, the common or generic name of the product, net weight or measure, and the sell-by date, among other product-specific instructions, all in either English or Kiswahili – the official and national languages of the country.
But the Chinese stores sell products that have all their packaging declarations in Mandarin, with some having only the popular or brand name, the expiry date and the net weight in recognisable characters.
This begs the question: are they really meant for the Kenyan market?
All these products bear the import standardisation mark (ISM) sticker issued by Kebs, which is a certification that they meet the required standards to be on the shelves.
Yet they don’t. Kebs’ standards state that products sold in Kenya must be labelled in English or any other official language in the East African Community, which also includes French and Kiswahili.
‘If the language on the original label is not acceptable to the consumer for whom it is intended, a supplementary label containing the information in the required language may be used instead of re-labelling,’ reads the Kebs standards.
Kebs told the Business Daily that any sale of imported products before relabelling is illegal and that it will take enforcement action against importers and retailers that violate labelling rules.
‘Kebs operates a risk-based conformity assessment and surveillance system that processes thousands of import consignments annually,’ a spokesperson told Business Daily in emailed responses.
‘While the system is designed to ensure a high level of compliance, isolated cases of non-compliance may occur due to factors such as mis-declaration of the customs clearance documents, non-compliance by importers, or circumvention of regulatory requirements by traders.’
Kebs said imported goods are subject to multiple compliance checks before reaching consumers. Under its Pre-Export Verification of Conformity (PVoC) programme, products destined for Kenya are inspected before shipment to verify compliance with Kenyan standards, including statutory marking and labelling requirements.
‘Kebs, through its PVoC Programme, verifies that imported products falling within its regulatory scope comply with applicable Kenya Standards and statutory marking and labelling requirements before being shipped, released into, or allowed to remain in the Kenyan market,’ the spokesperson said.
In the event of non-compliance, and depending on the product risk the non-compliances raises, the regulator said it can order an importer to recall the products, seize the products, and destroy them to protect consumers.
The Competition Authority of Kenya, which enforces consumer protection laws requiring traders to provide adequate product information for informed purchasing decisions, acknowledged Business Daily’s questions but did not respond by the time of publication. The retailers are aware they are breaking the law, but they say their hands are tied because they don’t make the products.
‘These products come prepackaged by the manufacturer, so we just have to sell them that way. But we’ve been trying to reduce and now many manufacturers we work with label in English,’ said a China Square spokesperson.
Stephen Mutoro, secretary-general of the Consumers Federation of Kenya, said labelling requirements exist to ensure consumers understand what they are buying and how to use products safely.
‘A label in Mandarin alone, with no English or Kiswahili, denies that right. That is a violation, not a technicality.’
China is Kenya’s largest source of imports, supplying goods worth a record Sh671 billion last year and accounting for more than a quarter of all imports, meaning even isolated failures to comply with Kenyan labelling requirements could affect a large number of products reaching consumers.