The Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) Director of Quality Assurance John
Abong at a media briefing. He said unscrupulous firms had perfected the
art of circumventing set quality marks, creating the need to resort to
technology. PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
The idea of a hand-held laboratory that promises to eliminate
the need to establish physical labs is being warmly received by
government agencies and regulatory bodies.
The Sh6
million laboratory called Rigaku Raman and manufactured by Japanese
technology giant Rigaku Corporation is billed to perform lab-quality
analysis of a wide range of solids, powders, liquids, and other
substances across several industries quickly.
The Kenya
Bureau of Standards (Kebs) has given the portable laboratory a clean
bill of health, setting in motion its adoption by other regulatory
agencies as they battle to curb a proliferation of counterfeit and
adulterated products in the market.
Speaking at a
presentation of the laboratory to regulatory bodies last Wednesday, Kebs
director of quality assurance John Abong said unscrupulous firms had
perfected the art of circumventing set quality marks, creating the need
to resort to technology.
ELIMINATING RELIANCE
“The
emphasis is on technology so as to handle the “digital” problems that
we face today by eliminating reliance on the human aspect,” he said.
The Anti-Counterfeit Agency lists the most affected items in the country as medicinal drugs, alcoholic drinks, and farm inputs.
And
industrialists, through the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, reckon
they lose nearly Sh70 billion annually to counterfeiters.
“Rigaku
Raman is capable of detecting agricultural products for toxicity and
identifying narcotics and explosives,” said Solomon Rumisha, managing
director of Panpath Holdings, the local distributor.
The
cost of the lab, however, is considerably higher than the average Sh2
million needed to set up a physical laboratory, according to the
chairman of the National Campaign against Drug Abuse John Mututho.
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