The Food and Feed Safety Coordination Act (2026): What does it mean for Food Safety in Kenya?
On the day the Finance Act 2026 was assented to, a second bill was also signed into law. Unlike the Finance Act, this did not make the news, but it is one of the most consequential laws for food safety in Kenya. In an X (Twitter) post, the PS Agriculture, Dr. Kiprono Rono, called it a “landmark step forward.” Indeed, it is, because Kenyans finally have an office they can hold accountable for the coordination and oversight of food safety.
The Food and Feed Safety Control Co-ordination Act, 2026 establishes the Office of the Food Safety Controller, whose mandate is to coordinate public institutions responsible for food and feed safety in Kenya. Historically, food and feed safety in Kenya relied on a multisectoral approach. There are dozens of Acts of Parliament and at least 11 statutory institutions whose mandates touch on food or feed safety.
The overarching laws include the Food, Drugs and Chemical Substances Act (Cap. 254) and the Public Health Act (Cap. 242). Specific and or commodities have their own laws and regulations. There are laws governing fisheries, crops, horticulture, dairy and meat production. Different laws also apply at different points along the food chain; at the farm, at factories during processing, transport and food retail.
Statutory institutions whose work contributes to food safety include the Pest Control Products Board (PCPB), Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS), the Agriculture and Food Authority, the Directorate of Veterinary Services (DVS) and the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), among others.
This is a lot of institutions and a lot of laws. Yet major food safety risks continue to affect public health. For instance, a recent report by the Kenya Organic Agriculture Network, KOAN (2026), found that 35 out of 45 vegetable samples tested, or 78%, contained detectable pesticide residues, with one in every three samples exceeding the European Union's Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs). Beyond agrochemicals, consumers face risks from heavy metal and aflatoxin contamination, food product adulteration and poor hygiene during the handling and transport of food items.
The different regulations and institutions address these risks within their respective mandates. KEBS deals with standards. Public health authorities deal with hygiene. Institutions such as KEPHIS, PCPB and DVS deal with different risks associated with production. However, the problem is that food does not move through the food system according to institutional mandates. Food risks at the production level can accumulate as they move through processing, transport and retail. Additionally, data has also been scattered across different agencies, making it difficult to get a bird’s-eye view of the entire food safety landscape.
This is where the Food and Feed Safety Coordination Act comes in.
Coordinating Fragmented Laws and Institutions
The Act seeks to coordinate the institutions, laws and regulations that govern the individual aspects of food and feed production, transport and consumption that, in totality, result in food safety. The Office of the Food Safety Controller comes in to act as the glue that holds everything together, weaving them into a unified national system through specific legal and structural mechanisms.
Through tools such as a Multi-Annual Control Plan and the audit and verification of enforcement and compliance measures, the office acts as a system-wide watchdog. It also serves as a data repository, pooling relevant information from across the food and feed safety system and giving the government a more comprehensive view of food safety issues.
Institutionalising Food Safety
For decades, perhaps until the 2013 Food Safety Policy, the government did not view food safety through a single conceptual lens. As aforementioned, different institutions focused on different facets of food risks, and were often addressed within particular commodity chains, such as dairy or meat, or at particular points along the food chain. This means that the different facets of food safety were regulated without necessarily looking at how they connect across the entire chain.
Yet this broader understanding of food safety is central to the constitutional aspirations of the right to food, the right to health and consumer protection under Articles 43 and 46 of the Kenyan constitution. For government to meet its obligations towards safe food, the regulations and data also needs to look at food safety as a concept, not individual facets divided across commodities or institutions.
Now, the Coordination Act gives this broader understanding of food safety a legal and institutional framework. Thus, the true power of this legislation is to move the law and public understanding of food safety as facets towards food safety as a whole system. NGOs and civil society have actively championed a “farm-to-fork” and rights-based framework, which looks at food safety holistically rather than as isolated pieces of the whole.
Public Accountability
More important to the public, the Office of the Food Safety Controller acts as the face of public accountability. By placing food safety coordination within one office, the Act gives the public somewhere to look when there are questions about food safety risks and how they are being managed. Rather than have the responsibility for food safety spread across different institutions, the new office creates a place where the different parts of the system can be brought together.
Established as a body corporate with designated State Office status, the Controller provides Kenyans with a single institution that can be held accountable for failures in its statutory coordination and oversight functions. The requirement for the office to develop an annual Food Safety report will further enhance transparency.
Challenges Ahead
This is not to say that food will now be safe in Kenya. While the coordination role of the office is a major step forward, it will require cooperation and institutional capacity to work as intended. There is a lot of consensus-seeking that will be required; there is the law and then there are the people and institutions that have to make it work.
There will also be challenges in how this translates to the informal sector, where a large proportion of food trade in Kenya takes place. The Act also gives county governments a huge role in enforcement and surveillance. Do they have the capacity to do this? There is also the question of transparency. Will the food safety reports be publicly available? Will the new system give the Controller a clear picture of what is happening across the country? And will the public be able to see the food safety risks identified and the action taken? While many questions remain, wider consultation with stakeholders will be important, particularly with those who have done this work for decades and know where the challenges are.
For sure, the Food and Feed Safety Coordination Act (2026) has given Kenya a framework for a more coordinated food safety system. However, the real test will be whether it will translate to the right to adequate and safe food for every citizen.
