NAIROBI, Kenya – Uasin Gishu Woman Representative Gladys Boss Shollei has intensified her calls urging the government to remove all hazardous pesticides from the Kenyan market.
A study released on September 13, 2023, in Kenya indicates that pesticides that are banned for use in the European Union due to their risks to health and the environment continue to be sold by European and other international companies in Kenya.
Against this backdrop, Shollei urged the Kenyan authorities to ban all imports of highly hazardous pesticides and their active ingredients, phase out their use within the country, and invest in safer and more sustainable methods.
“The continued presence of these toxic chemicals in our farms and food supply is a direct attack on the health of our people,” said Shollei.
Shollei made the remarks on Thursday, March 27, 2025, when she took a stand for a pesticide-free Kenya at the 2nd Eastern Africa Agroecology Conference.
“Kenya’s food security and public health are under threat from Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs). This is a crisis we can no longer ignore,” added the Woman MP.
Who is responsible for the use of hazardous pesticides in Kenya
The lawmaker further called on the Pest Control Products Board (PCPB) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development to act immediately to ban these harmful pesticides.
“The board is solely responsible for every case of cancer in Kenya linked to pesticide exposure, and I call for its removal. We cannot allow regulatory failures to continue putting lives at risk,” explained Shollei.
Through strong legislation, Shollei observed that with policy reforms and accountability, she will continue to advocate for a future where Kenyan food is safe, farmers are protected, and people are healthy.
According to science, anywhere from 25% to 80% of people across the world have the weedkiller Roundup in their bodies.
“Without our knowledge and our consent. Study after study has described Monsanto and Bayer’s weedkiller as chronically toxic, probably carcinogenic, linked to liver cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, and likely to kill 93% of endangered species,” the scientists said.
How experts are reacting to the use of hazardous pesticides
Experts argue that even the report that the European Union (EU) Commission uses to justify its continued use says that Roundup carries a high long-term risk to mammals.
“That means us. We have one chance now to get to get this crap off our shelves—zero tolerance. We must kill Roundup before it kills nature and takes us along with it,” say the experts.
Shollei further revealed that the public petition she submitted about the issue to the National Assembly in 2019 seeking to ban the harmful pesticides awaits action from the PCPB and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development.
“By all levels of government, there is a document called the Pesticide Atlas that was developed by 20 scientists from the University of Nairobi. It has been confirmed that 267 pesticides banned in Europe and the USA are in use in Kenya,” added Shollei.
Shollei pointed an accusing finger at PCPB, which is the body mandated with coming up with a list of approved pesticides.
“Those banned substances are still on our list. So, the offenders here now are the PCPB members. I have written requesting their removal from office to the agriculture cabinet secretary because they have failed and endangered Kenyans’ lives,” said the lawmaker.
However, Kipronoh Cheruiyot Troy, a farmer in Uasin Gishu County, challenged Shollei, arguing that there are independent institutions such as the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), the Kenya Drugs and Poison Board (KDPB), the Anti-Counterfeit Authority (ACA), and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), among others, that are charged with the responsibility of ensuring all the products produced and sold meet the requisite standards.
“You purporting to be on the forefront trying to perform the duties of such independent organisations is not only insubordination but a breach of law. You being a politician, you are not better than others who have been taking genuine businesses in rounds so that they are given something before letting them go,” Kiprotich fired back at Shollei.
Why Human Rights Watch is in support of Gladys Shollei
This is even why Human Rights Watch called on the Kenyan government to urgently put in place regulations on highly hazardous pesticides, prioritising a list of 40 ingredients identified due to their health and environmental risks and prevalence of use.
“It should go without saying that pesticides considered too harmful for people living in Europe are equally harmful for those living in Kenya,” said Julia Bleckner, senior health researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“The European Union Commission should urgently introduce promised legislation to end the double standard of exporting dangerous pesticides that are already banned for use in the EU.”
Data on Kenya’s pesticide use in 2020 obtained from a private market research company by the RTFI indicates that the Chinese-owned Swiss company Syngenta and German Bayer AG had the largest market share by volume for pesticides in Kenya, together making up 35%.
The group also found that over 65% of the pesticides sold by Syngenta and nearly 85% of those sold by Bayer in Kenya are classified as “highly hazardous” by the Pesticide Action Network, meaning they “are acknowledged to present particularly high levels of acute or chronic hazards to health or environment” under international classification systems.
Some of the pesticides sold by these companies in Kenya in 2020 had already been banned in the EU.
Exposure to hazardous pesticides can have severe effects on human health, adequate food, safe drinking water, and a healthy environment.
